Nogo receptor antagonists

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides, Nogo receptor-1 antibodies, antigen-binding fragments thereof, soluble Nogo receptors and fusion proteins thereof and nucleic acids encoding the same. Also disclosed are compositions comprising, and methods for making and using, such Nogo receptor antibodies, antigen-binding fragments thereof, soluble Nogo receptors and fusion proteins thereof and nucleic acids encoding the same.

This application is a continuation of International ApplicationPCT/US03/25004, filed Aug. 7, 2003, which claims benefit from U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/402,866, filed Aug. 10, 2002, thedisclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to neurobiology and molecular biology. Moreparticularly, this invention relates to immunogenic Nogo receptor-1polypeptides, Nogo receptor-1 antibodies, antigen-binding fragmentsthereof, soluble Nogo receptors and fusion proteins thereof and nucleicacids encoding the same. This invention further relates to compositionscomprising, and methods for making and using, such Nogo receptorantibodies, antigen-binding fragments thereof, immunogenic Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptides, soluble Nogo receptors and fusion proteinsthereof and nucleic acids encoding the same.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Axons and dendrites of neurons are long cellular extensions fromneurons. The distal tip of an extending axon or neurite comprises aspecialized region, known as the growth cone. Growth cones sense thelocal environment and guide axonal growth toward the neuron's targetcell. Growth cones respond to several environmental cues, for example,surface adhesiveness, growth factors, neurotransmitters and electricfields. The guidance of growth at the cone involves various classes ofadhesion molecules, intercellular signals, as well as factors thatstimulate and inhibit growth cones. The growth cone of a growing neuriteadvances at various rates, but typically at the speed of one to twomillimeters per day.

Growth cones are hand shaped, with broad flat expansion (microspikes orfilopodia) that differentially adhere to surfaces in the embryo. Thefilopodia are continually active, some filopodia retract back into thegrowth cone, while others continue to elongate through the substratum.The elongations between different filopodia form lamellipodia.

The growth cone explores the area that is ahead of it and on either sidewith its lamellipodia and filopodia. When an elongation contacts asurface that is unfavorable to growth, it withdraws. When an elongationcontacts a favorable growth surface, it continues to extend and guidesthe growth cone in that direction. The growth cone can be guided bysmall variations in surface properties of the substrata. When the growthcone reaches an appropriate target cell a synaptic connection iscreated.

Nerve cell function is greatly influenced by the contact between theneuron and other cells in its immediate environment (U. Rutishauser, T.M. Jessell, Physiol. Rev. 1988, 68, p. 819). These cells includespecialized glial cells, oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system(CNS), and Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system (PNS), whichensheathe the neuronal axon with myelin (an insulating structure ofmulti-layered membranes) (G. Lemke, in An Introduction to MolecularNeurobiology, Z. Hall, Ed. [Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass., 1992], p. 281).

While CNS neurons have the capacity to regenerate after injury, they areinhibited from doing so because of the presence of inhibitory proteinspresent in myelin and possibly also by other types of molecules normallyfound in their local environment (Brittis and Flanagan, Neuron 2001, 30,pp. 11-14; Jones et al., J. Neurosci. 2002, 22, pp. 2792-2803; Grimpe etal., J. Neurosci. 2002, 22, pp. 3144-3160).

Several myelin inhibitory proteins that are found on oligodendrocyteshave been characterized, e.g., NogoA (Chen et al., Nature, 2000, 403,434-439; Grandpre et al., Nature 2000, 403, 439-444), myelin associatedglycoprotein (MAG, McKerracher et al, Neuron 1994, 13, 805-811;Mukhopadhyay et al, Neuron 1994, 13, 757-767) and oligodendrocyteglycoprotein (OM-gp, Mikol and Stefansson, J. Cell. Biol. 1988, 106,1273-1279). Each of these proteins has been separately shown to be aligand for the neuronal Nogo receptor-1 (Wang et al., Nature 2002, 417,941-944; Liu et al., Science, 2002, 297, 1190-93; Grandpre et al.,Nature 2000, 403, 439-444; Chen et al., Nature, 2000, 403, 434-439;Domeniconi et al., Neuron, 2002, 35, 283-90).

Nogo receptor-1 is a GPI-anchored membrane protein that contains 8leucine rich repeats (Fournier et al., Nature 2001, 409, 341-346). Uponinteraction with an inhibitory protein (e.g., NogoA, MAG and OM-gp), theNogo receptor-1 complex transduces signals that lead to growth conecollapse and inhibition of neurite outgrowth.

There is an urgent need for molecules that inhibit Nogo receptor-1binding to its ligands and attenuate myelin-mediated growth conecollapse and inhibition of neurite outgrowth.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides and fusionproteins comprising them, and antibodies and antigenic fragments thereofdirected against specific immunogenic regions of Nogo receptor-1. Theinvention also relates to immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides thatbind to the antibodies of the invention. The invention further relatesto nucleic acids encoding the polypeptides of this invention, vectorsand host cells comprising such nucleic acids and methods of making thepeptides. The antibodies, soluble receptors and receptor fusion proteinsof this invention antagonize or block Nogo receptor-1 and are useful forinhibiting binding of Nogo receptor-1 to its ligands, inhibiting growthcone collapse in a neuron and decreasing the inhibition of neuriteoutgrowth or sprouting in a neuron.

In some embodiments, the invention provides an immunogenic polypeptideselected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ IDNO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4 and SEQ ID NO: 5.

In some embodiments, the invention provides nucleic acids encoding saidimmunogenic polypeptides, vectors comprising said nucleic acids and hostcells comprising said nucleic acids or vectors. In some embodiments, thenucleic acid is operably linked to an expression control sequence.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of producing theimmunogenic polypeptide comprising the steps of (a) culturing a hostcell comprising the nucleic acid encoding an immunogenic peptide or thevector encoding the same; and (b) recovering the polypeptide from thehost cell or culture medium.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of producing anantibody that specifically binds a Nogo receptor-1 comprising the stepsof (a) immunizing a host with a polypeptide selected from the groupconsisting of SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4 andSEQ ID NO: 5 or a host cell expressing said polypeptides; and (b)recovering the antibody. In some embodiments, the antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof is produced by this method. In someembodiments, the antibody or an antigen-binding fragment thereofspecifically binds to a polypeptide selected from the group consistingof SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4 and SEQ ID NO:5. In some embodiments, the antibody or antigen-binding fragment (a)inhibits growth cone collapse of a neuron; (b) decreases the inhibitionof neurite outgrowth and sprouting in a neuron; and (c) inhibits Nogoreceptor-1 binding to a ligand. In some embodiments, the antibody orantigen-binding fragment promotes survival of a neuron at risk of dying.In some embodiments, the neuron at risk of dying is in an animal, e.g.,a mammal. In some embodiments, neurite outgrowth and sprouting is axonalgrowth. In some embodiments, the neuron is a central nervous system(CNS) neuron.

In some embodiments the antibody or antigen-binding fragment is amonoclonal antibody. In some embodiments, the antibody orantigen-binding fragment is a murine antibody. In some embodiments, theantibody is a humanized antibody, a chimeric antibody, or a single chainantibody.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a hybridoma cell lineselected from the group consisting of HB 7E11 (ATCC® accession No.PTA-4587), HB 1H2 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4584), HB 3G5 (ATCC®accession No. PTA-4586), HB 5B10 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4588) and HB2F7 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4585). In some embodiments, the antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof is produced by the hybridoma cell line.

In some embodiments the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereofcomprises a light chain comprising an amino acid sequence selected fromthe group consisting of (a) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 15;(b) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 16; and (c) an amino acidsequence comprising the CDR1, CDR2, and CDR3 amino acid sequences of SEQID NOs: 22, 23, and 24. In some embodiments the antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof comprises a heavy chain comprising anamino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of (a) the aminoacid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 17; (b) the amino acid sequence of SEQ IDNO: 18; and (c) an amino acid sequence comprising the CDR1, CDR2, andCDR3 amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 19, 20, and 21. In someembodiments, the invention provides a nucleic acid encoding saidantibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof. In some embodiments, thenucleic acid is operably linked to an expression control sequence. Insome embodiments, the invention provides a vector comprising saidnucleic acid. In some embodiments, the invention provides a host cellcomprising said nucleic acid or comprising a vector comprising thenucleic acid.

In some embodiments, the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereofcompetitively inhibits the binding of an antibody produced by thehybridoma cell line to a Nogo receptor-1 or an immunogenic polypeptideselected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ IDNO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4 and SEQ ID NO: 5.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of inhibiting Nogoreceptor-1 binding to a ligand, comprising the step of contacting Nogoreceptor-1 with an antibody or antigen-binding fragment of thisinvention. In some embodiments, the ligand is selected from the groupconsisting of NogoA, NogoB, NogoC, MAG and OM-gp.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for inhibitinggrowth cone collapse in a neuron, comprising the step of contacting theneuron with the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of thisinvention. In some embodiments, the invention provides a method fordecreasing the inhibition of neurite outgrowth or sprouting in a neuron,comprising the step of contacting the neuron with the antibody orantigen-binding fragment of this invention. In some embodiments, theneuron is a CNS neuron. In some of these methods, the neurite outgrowthor sprouting is axonal growth.

In some embodiments the invention provides a method of promotingsurvival of a neuron at risk of dying, comprising contacting the neuronwith an effective amount of (a) an anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof; or (b) a soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide. In some embodiments, the soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide is a fusion protein, e.g., an Fc-fusion protein. In someembodiments, the fusion protein is the sNogoR344-Fc protein. In someembodiments the neuron is in vitro. In some embodiments the neuron is ina mammal displaying signs or symptoms of, e.g., multiple sclerosis, ALS,Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabeticneuropathy, stroke, traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injury.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of promotingsurvival of a neuron at risk of dying, the neuron being in a mammal,comprising (a) providing a cultured host cell expressing (i) ananti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof; or(ii) a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide; and (b) introducing the hostcell into the mammal at or near the site of the neuron.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a gene therapy method ofpromoting survival of a neuron in a mammal, which neuron is at risk ofdying, comprising administering at or near the site of the neuron aviral vector comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes (a) ananti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or antigen-binding fragment; or (b) asoluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide, wherein the anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody, antigen-binding fragment, or soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide is expressed from the nucleotide sequence in the mammal inan amount sufficient to promote survival of the neuron.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide consisting essentially of a N-terminal domain (NT), 8leucine rich repeat domains (LRR) and a LRR C-terminal domain (LRRCT) ofNogo receptor-1. In some embodiments, said soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide is joined to a signal sequence. In some embodiments, the LRRcomprises a heterologous LRR. In some embodiments, the inventionprovides a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide selected from the groupconsisting of: amino acid residues 26-344 of SEQ ID NO: 6; amino acidresidues 26-310 of SEQ ID NO: 7; amino acid residues 26-344 of SEQ IDNO: 8; amino acid residues 26-310 of SEQ ID NO: 9; amino acid residues27-344 of SEQ ID NO: 8; and amino acid residues 27-310 of SEQ ID NO: 9.In some embodiments, the invention provides a nucleic acid encoding saidsoluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide. In some embodiments, the nucleicacid is operably linked to an expression control sequence. In someembodiments, the invention provides a vector comprising said nucleicacid. In some embodiments, the invention provides a host cell comprisingsaid nucleic acid or a vector comprising the nucleic acid.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of producing asoluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention comprising thesteps of (a) culturing a host cell comprising a nucleic acid encodingthe soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or a vector comprising thenucleic acid; and (b) recovering the polypeptide from the host cell orculture medium.

In some embodiments the invention provides a Nogo receptor-1 fusionprotein comprising a soluble Nogo receptor-1 and a heterologouspolypeptide. In some embodiments, the soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide consists essentially of a N-terminal domain (NT), 8 leucinerich repeat domains (LRR) and a LRR C-terminal domain (LRRCT) of Nogoreceptor-1. In some embodiments, the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptideis joined to a signal sequence. In some embodiments, the Nogo receptor-1fusion protein comprises a heterologous LRR. In some embodiments, theNogo receptor-1 fusion protein comprises a polypeptide selected from thegroup consisting of: amino acid residues 26-344 of SEQ ID NO: 6; aminoacid residues 26-310 of SEQ ID NO: 7; amino acid residues 26-344 of SEQID NO: 8; amino acid residues 26-310 of SEQ ID NO: 9; amino acidresidues 27-344 of SEQ ID NO: 8; and amino acid residues 27-310 of SEQID NO: 9. In some embodiments the heterologous polypeptide comprises animmunoglobulin constant region. In some embodiments, the immunoglobulinconstant region is an immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region. Insome embodiments, the immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region is anIgG heavy chain constant region. In some embodiments, the heterologouspolypeptide is an Fc region. In some embodiments, the Nogo receptor-1fusion protein is a dimer.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a nucleic acid encoding theNogo receptor-1 fusion protein. In some embodiments, the nucleic acidencoding the Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein is operably linked to anexpression control sequence.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a vector comprising thenucleic acid encoding the Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a host cell comprising thenucleic acid encoding the Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein or the vectorcomprising the nucleic acid encoding the Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of producing theNogo receptor-1 fusion protein comprising the steps of (a) culturing ahost cell comprising a nucleic acid encoding the Nogo receptor-1 fusionprotein or a vector comprising the nucleic acid; and (b) recovering theNogo receptor-1 fusion protein from the host cell or culture medium.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of inhibiting Nogoreceptor-1 binding to a ligand, comprising the step of contacting theligand with the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or the Nogoreceptor-1 fusion protein of this invention.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of modulating anactivity of a Nogo receptor-1 ligand, comprising the step of contactingthe Nogo receptor-1 ligand with a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide ora Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of the invention.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for inhibitinggrowth cone collapse in a neuron, comprising the step of contacting aNogo receptor-1 ligand with a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or aNogo receptor-1 fusion protein of this invention. In some embodiments,the invention provides a method for decreasing the inhibition of neuriteoutgrowth or sprouting in a neuron, comprising the step of contacting aNogo receptor-1 ligand with the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide orthe Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of this invention. In someembodiments, the neuron is a CNS neuron. In some embodiments, the ligandis selected from the group consisting of NogoA, NogoB, NogoC, MAG andOM-gp. In some embodiments, the neurite outgrowth or sprouting is axonalgrowth.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a composition comprising apharmaceutically acceptable carrier and a component selected from (a) anantibody or an antigen-binding fragment according to this invention; (b)a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide according to this invention; and(c) a Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein according to this invention. Insome embodiments, the composition further comprises one or moreadditional therapeutic agents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the structure of Nogoreceptor-1. Human sNogoR310 contains residues 26-310 and sNogoR344contains residues 26-344. Rat sNogoR310 contains residues 27-310 andsNogoR344 contains residues 27-344

FIG. 2 depicts an antigenicity plot for the Nogo receptor-1 proteinusing the Vector Nti™ software. Rat P-617 is SEQ ID NO: 10 and rat P-618is SEQ ID NO: 11.

FIG. 3A is a graph depicting the binding activity of anti-Nogoreceptor-1 antibody, 7E11. The graph presents the effect of 7E11concentration on the binding of Nogo66 to Nogo receptor-1. FIG. 3Bdepicts the binding activity of anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody, 1H2. Thegraph presents the effect of 1H2 concentration on the binding of Nogo66to sNogoR344-Fc (also referred to herein and in U.S. patent application60/402,866 as Fc-sNogoR344 or Ig-sNogoR344). Fc-MAG did not compete withNogo66 for binding to sNogoR344-Fc.

FIG. 4 depicts the results of an ELISA for anti-Nogo-R-1 antibodies 1H2,3G5 and 2F7. The effect of the antibodies on OD₄₅₀ in the presence ofimmobilized antigens was determined. The immobilized antigens weresNogoR310-Fc (also referred to herein and in U.S. patent application60/402,866 as Fc-sNogoR310 or Ig-sNogoR310), sNogoR344-Fc, p-617, p-618,p-4, p-5 and ovalbumin and BSA.

FIG. 5 is a graph depicting the effects of monoclonal antibody, 7E11, onrat DRG neurite outgrowth in the presence of varying amounts of myelin.

FIG. 6A is a graph depicting the effect of binding of sNogoR310 to¹²⁵I-Nogo66 and ¹²⁵I-Nogo40 in the presence of the followingcompetitors: Nogo66, Nogo40 and anti-Nogo receptor-1 monoclonal antibodysupernatant. FIG. 6B depicts the binding activity of ¹²⁵I-Nogo66 tosNogoR310.

FIG. 7 is a graph depicting the effect of sNogoR310-Fc on ¹²⁵I-Nogo40binding to sNogoR310.

FIG. 8 is a graph depicting the binding activity of sNogoR310-Fc to¹²⁵I-Nogo40.

FIG. 9A is a graph of the effect of sNogoR310 on neurite outgrowth/cellin the presence or absence of myelin. FIG. 9B is a graph of the effectof sNogoR310 on neurite outgrowth in the presence or absence of myelin.

FIG. 10A is a graph depicting the effect of sNogoR310-Fc on P4 rat DRGneurite outgrowth in the presence or absence of increasing amounts ofmyelin. FIG. 10B depicts the number of neurites/cell following treatmentwith PBS, PBS+sNogoR310-Fc, 20 ng myelin and myelin+sNogoR310-Fc.

FIG. 11 is a graph depicting the effect of monoclonal antibody 5B10 onDRG neurite outgrowth/cell in the presence of increasing amounts ofmyelin.

FIG. 12 is a graph depicting the effect of sNogoR310-Fc on the BBB scoreup to 30 days following induction of injury in a rat spinal cordtransection model.

FIGS. 13A and 13B report the locomotor BBB score as a function of timeafter dorsal hemisection in the WT or transgenic mice from Line 08 orLine 01. FIG. 13C graphs the maximal tolerated inclined plane angle as afunction of time after injury for WT and transgenic mice. FIG. 13D showshindlimb errors during inclined grid climbing as a function ofpost-injury time. In all the graphs, means±s.e.m. from 7-9 mice in eachgroup are reported. The values from transgenic group are statisticallydifferent from the WT mice. (double asterisks, P<0.01; Student'st-test).

FIG. 14A shows the locomotor BBB score as a function of time afterdorsal hemisection in vehicle or sNogoR310-Fc treated animals. FIG. 14Bshows hindlimb errors during grid walking as a function of time afterinjury. FIG. 14C shows footprint analysis revealing a shorter stridelength and a greater stride width in control mice than uninjured orinjured+sNogoR310-Fc rats. In all the graphs, means±s.e.m. from 7-9 ratsin each group are reported. The values of sNogoR310-Fc group arestatistically different from the control (FIGS. 14A-B). The controlvalues are statistically different from no-SCI or SCI+sNogoR310-Fc ratsin FIG. 14C. (asterisk, p<0.05; double asterisks, p<0.01; Student'st-test).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Definitions and General Techniques

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used hereinhave the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill inthe art to which this invention belongs. In case of conflict, thepresent application including the definitions will control. Also, unlessotherwise required by context, singular terms shall include pluralitiesand plural terms shall include the singular. All publications, patentsand other references mentioned herein are incorporated by reference intheir entireties for all purposes.

Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those describedherein can be used in practice or testing of the present invention,suitable methods and materials are described below. The materials,methods and examples are illustrative only, and are not intended to belimiting. Other features and advantages of the invention will beapparent from the detailed description and from the claims.

Throughout this specification and claims, the word “comprise,” orvariations such as “comprises” or “comprising,” will be understood toimply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not theexclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

In order to further define this invention, the following terms anddefinitions are herein provided.

As used herein, “antibody” means an intact immunoglobulin, or anantigen-binding fragment thereof. Antibodies of this invention can be ofany isotype or class (e.g., M, D, G, E and A) or any subclass (e.g.,G1-4, A1-2) and can have either a kappa (κ) or lambda (λ) light chain.

As used herein, “Fc” means a portion of the heavy chain constant regionof an antibody that is obtainable by papain digestion.

As used herein, “NogoR fusion protein” means a protein comprising asoluble Nogo receptor-1 moiety fused to a heterologous polypeptide.

As used herein, “humanized antibody” means an antibody in which at leasta portion of the non-human sequences are replaced with human sequences.Examples of how to make humanized antibodies may be found in U.S. Pat.Nos. 6,054,297, 5,886,152 and 5,877,293.

As used herein, “chimeric antibody” means an antibody that contains oneor more regions from a first antibody and one or more regions from atleast one other antibody. The first antibody and the additionalantibodies can be from the same or different species.

As used herein and in U.S. patent application 60/402,866, “Nogoreceptor,” “NogoR,” “NogoR-1,” “NgR,” and “NgR-1” each means Nogoreceptor-1.

Immunogenic Nogo Receptor-1 Polypeptides

In one aspect the present invention relates to Nogo receptor-1polypeptides that are immunogenic. In some embodiments of the invention,the immunogenic polypeptide consists essentially of an amino acidsequence selected from the group consisting of: LDLSDNAQLRVVDPTT(rat)(SEQ ID NO: 1); LDLSDNAQLRSVDPAT (human)(SEQ ID NO: 2);AVASGPFRPFQTNQLTDEELLGLPKCCQPDAADKA (rat)(SEQ ID NO: 3);AVATGPYHPIWTGRATDEEPLGLPKCCQPDAADKA (human)(SEQ ID NO: 4); andCRLGQAGSGA (mouse) (SEQ ID NO: 5).

In some embodiments, the invention relates to a nucleic acid encoding apolypeptide of SEQ ID NOs: 1-5. In some embodiments of the invention,the nucleic acid molecule is linked to an expression control sequence(e.g., pcDNA(I)).

The present invention also relates to a vector comprising a nucleic acidcoding for an immunogenic polypeptide of the invention. In someembodiments of the invention, the vector is a cloning vector. In someembodiments of the invention, the vector is an expression vector. Insome embodiments of the invention, the vector contains at least oneselectable marker.

The present invention also relates to host cells comprising theabove-described nucleic acid or vector.

The present invention also relates to a method of producing animmunogenic polypeptide of the invention comprising the step ofculturing a host cell. In some embodiments, the host cell isprokaryotic. In some embodiments, the host cell is eukaryotic. In someembodiments, the host cell is yeast.

Antibodies

The present invention further relates to an antibody or anantigen-binding fragment thereof that specifically binds an immunogenicNogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention. In some embodiments theantibody or antigen-binding fragment binds a polypeptide consistingessentially of an amino acid sequence selected from the group consistingof SEQ ID NOs: 1-5. The antibody or antigen-binding fragment of thepresent invention may be produced in vivo or in vitro. Production of theantibody or antigen-binding fragment is discussed below.

An antibody or an antigen-binding fragment thereof of the inventioninhibits the binding of Nogo receptor-1 to a ligand (e.g., NogoA, NogoB,NogoC, MAG, OM-gp) and decreases myelin-mediated inhibition of neuriteoutgrowth and sprouting, particularly axonal growth, and attenuatesmyelin mediated growth cone collapse.

In some embodiments, the anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof is murine. In some embodiments, theNogo receptor-1 is from rat. In other embodiments, the Nogo receptor-1is human. In some embodiments the anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof is recombinant, engineered, humanizedand/or chimeric.

In some embodiments, the antibody is selected from the group consistingof: monoclonal 7E11 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4587); monoclonal 1H2(ATCC® accession No. PTA-4584); monoclonal 2F7 (ATCC® accession No.PTA-4585); monoclonal 3G5 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4586); and monoclonal5B10 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4588). In some embodiments, the antibodyis polyclonal antibody 46.

Exemplary antigen-binding fragments are, Fab, Fab′, F(ab′)₂, Fv, Fd,dAb, and fragments containing complementarity determining region (CDR)fragments, single-chain antibodies (scFv), chimeric antibodies,diabodies and polypeptides that contain at least a portion of animmunoglobulin that is sufficient to confer specific antigen-binding tothe polypeptide (e.g., immunoadhesins).

As used herein, Fd means a fragment that consists of the V_(H) andC_(H1) domains; Fv means a fragment that consists of the V_(L) and V_(H)domains of a single arm of an antibody; and dAb means a fragment thatconsists of a V_(H) domain (Ward et al., Nature 341:544-546, 1989). Asused herein, single-chain antibody (scFv) means an antibody in which aV_(L) region and a V_(H) region are paired to form a monovalentmolecules via a synthetic linker that enables them to be made as asingle protein chain (Bird et al., Science 242:423-426, 1988 and Hustonet al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:5879-5883, 1988). As used herein,diabody means a bispecific antibody in which V_(H) and V_(L) domains areexpressed on a single polypeptide chain, but using a linker that is tooshort to allow for pairing between the two domains on the same chain,thereby forcing the domains to pair with complementary domains ofanother chain and creating two antigen-binding sites (see e.g.,Holliger, P., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:6444-6448, 1993, andPoljak, R. J., et al., Structure 2:1121-1123, 1994). As used herein,immunoadhesin that specifically binds an antigen of interest, means amolecule in which one or more CDRs may be incorporated, eithercovalently or noncovalently.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a subunit polypeptide of aNogo receptor-1 antibody of the invention, wherein the subunitpolypeptide is selected from the group consisting of: (a) a heavy chainor a variable region thereof; and (b) a light chain or a variable regionthereof.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a nucleic acid encoding theheavy chain or the variable region thereof, or the light chain and thevariable region thereof of a subunit polypeptide of a Nogo receptor-1antibody of the invention.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a hypervariable region (CDR)of a Nogo receptor-1 antibody of the invention or a nucleic acidencoding a CDR.

Immunization

Antibodies of the invention can be generated by immunization of asuitable host (e.g., vertebrates, including humans, mice, rats, sheep,goats, pigs, cattle, horses, reptiles, fishes, amphibians, and in eggsof birds, reptiles and fish). Such antibodies may be polyclonal ormonoclonal.

In some embodiments, the host is immunized with an immunogenic Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptide of the invention. In other embodiments, the hostis immunized with Nogo receptor-1 associated with the cell membrane ofan intact or disrupted cell and antibodies of the invention areidentified by binding to an immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide ofthe invention.

In some embodiments, the Nogo receptor-1 antigen is administered with anadjuvant to stimulate the immune response. Adjuvants often need to beadministered in addition to antigen in order to elicit an immuneresponse to the antigen. These adjuvants are usually insoluble orundegradable substances that promote nonspecific inflammation, withrecruitment of mononuclear phagocytes at the site of immunization.Examples of adjuvants include, but are not limited to, Freund'sadjuvant, RIBI (muramyl dipeptides), ISCOM (immunostimulating complexes)or fragments thereof.

For a review of methods for making antibodies, see e.g., Harlow and Lane(1988), Antibodies, A Laboratory Manual, Yelton, D. E. et al. (1981);Ann. Rev. of Biochem., 50, pp. 657-80., and Ausubel et al. (1989);Current Protocols in Molecular Biology (New York: John Wiley & Sons).Determination of immunoreactivity with an immunogenic Nogo receptor-1polypeptide of the invention may be made by any of several methods wellknown in the art, including, e.g., immunoblot assay and ELISA.

Production of Antibodies and Antibody Producing Cell Lines

Monoclonal antibodies of the invention can made by standard proceduresas described, e.g., in Harlow and Lane (1988), supra.

Briefly, at an appropriate period of time the animal is sacrificed andlymph node and/or splenic B-cells are immortalized by any one of severaltechniques that are well-known in the art, including but not limited totransformation, such as with EBV or fusion with an immortalized cellline, such as myeloma cells. Thereafter, the cells are clonallyseparated and the supernatants of each clone tested for production of anantibody specific for an immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of theinvention. Methods of selecting, cloning and expanding hybridomas arewell known in the art. Similarly, methods for identifying the nucleotideand amino acid sequence of the immunoglobulin genes are known in theart.

Other suitable techniques for producing an antibody of the inventioninvolve in vitro exposure of lymphocytes to the Nogo receptor-1 or to animmunogenic polypeptide of the invention, or alternatively, selection oflibraries of antibodies in phage or similar vectors. See Huse et al.,Science, 246, pp. 1275-81 (1989). Antibodies useful in the presentinvention may be employed with or without modification.

Antigens (in this case Nogo receptor-1 or an immunogenic polypeptide ofthe invention) and antibodies can be labeled by joining, eithercovalently or non-covalently, a substance that provides for a detectablesignal. Various labels and conjugation techniques are known in the artand can be employed in practicing the invention. Suitable labelsinclude, but are not limited to, radionucleotides, enzymes, substrates,cofactors, inhibitors, fluorescent agents, chemiluminescent agents,magnetic particles and the like. Patents teaching the use of such labelsinclude U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,817,837; 3,850,752; 3,939,350; 3,996,345;4,277,437; 4,275,149 and 4,366,241. Also, recombinant immunoglobulinsmay be produced (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,567).

In some embodiments of the invention, an antibody has multiple bindingspecificities, such as a bifunctional antibody prepared by any one of anumber of techniques known to those of skill in the art including theproduction of hybrid hybridomas, disulfide exchange, chemicalcross-linking, addition of peptide linkers between two monoclonalantibodies, the introduction of two sets of immunoglobulin heavy andlight chains into a particular cell line, and so forth (see below formore detailed discussion).

The antibodies of this invention may also be human monoclonalantibodies, for example those produced by immortalized human cells, bySCID-hu mice or other non-human animals capable of producing “human”antibodies.

Phage Display Libraries

Anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies of this invention can be isolated byscreening a recombinant combinatorial antibody library. Exemplarycombinatorial libraries are for binding to an immunogenic Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptide of the invention, such as a scFv phage displaylibrary, prepared using V_(L) and V_(H) cDNAs prepared from mRNA derivedan animal immunized with an immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide ofthe invention. Methodologies for preparing and screening such librariesare known in the art. There are commercially available methods andmaterials for generating phage display libraries (e.g., the PharmaciaRecombinant Phage Antibody System, catalog no. 27-9400-01; theStratagene SurfZAP™ phage display kit, catalog no. 240612; and othersfrom MorphoSys). There are also other methods and reagents that can beused in generating and screening antibody display libraries (see e.g.,Ladner et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,409; Kang et al. PCT Publication No.WO 92/18619; Dower et al. PCT Publication No. WO 91/17271; Winter et al.PCT Publication No. WO 92/20791; Markland et al. PCT Publication No. WO92/15679; Breitling et al. PCT Publication No. WO 93/01288; McCaffertyet al. PCT Publication No. WO 92/01047; Garrard et al. PCT PublicationNo. WO 92/09690; Fuchs et al. (1991) Bio/Technology 9:1370-1372; Hay etal. (1992) Hum. Antibod. Hybridomas 3:81-85; Huse et al. (1989) Science246:1275-1281; McCafferty et al., Nature (1990) 348:552-554; Griffithset al. (1993) EMBO J. 12:725-734; Hawkins et al. (1992) J. Mol. Biol.226:889-896; Clackson et al. (1991) Nature 352:624-628; Gram et al.(1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:3576-3580; Garrad et al. (1991)Bio/Technology 9:1373-1377; Hoogenboom et al. (1991) Nucl. Acids Res.19:4133-4137; and Barbas et al. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA88:7978-7982.

Following screening and isolation of an anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody ofthe invention from a recombinant immunoglobulin display library, thenucleic acid encoding the selected antibody can be recovered from thedisplay package (e.g., from the phage genome) and subcloned into otherexpression vectors by standard recombinant DNA techniques. If desired,the nucleic acid can be further manipulated to create other antibodyforms of the invention, as described below. To express an antibodyisolated by screening a combinatorial library, DNA encoding the antibodyheavy chain and light chain or the variable regions thereof is clonedinto a recombinant expression vector and introduced into a mammalianhost cell, as described above.

Class Switching

Anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies of the invention can be of any isotype.An antibody of any desired isotype can be produced by class switching.For class switching, nucleic acids encoding V_(L) or V_(H), that do notinclude any nucleotide sequences encoding C_(L) or C_(H), are isolatedusing methods well known in the art. The nucleic acids encoding V_(L) orV_(H) are then operatively linked to a nucleotide sequence encoding aC_(L) or C_(H) from a desired class of immunoglobulin molecule. This maybe achieved using a vector or nucleic acid that comprises a C_(L) orC_(H) chain, as described above. For example, an anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody of the invention that was originally IgM may be class switchedto an IgG. Further, the class switching may be used to convert one IgGsubclass to another, e.g., from IgG1 to IgG2.

Mutated Antibodies

In other embodiments, antibodies or antigen-binding fragments of theinvention may be mutated in the variable domains of the heavy and/orlight chains to alter a binding property of the antibody. For example, amutation may be made in one or more of the CDR regions to increase ordecrease the K_(d) of the antibody for Nogo receptor-1, to increase ordecrease K_(off), or to alter the binding specificity of the antibody.Techniques in site-directed mutagenesis are well known in the art. Seee.g., Sambrook et al. and Ausubel et al., supra. In a preferredembodiment, mutations are made at an amino acid residue that is known tobe changed compared to germline in a variable region of an anti-Nogoreceptor-1 antibody of the invention. In some embodiments, mutations aremade at one or more amino acid residues that are known to be changedcompared to the germline in a variable region of an anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody of the invention. In another embodiment, a nucleic acidencoding an antibody heavy chain or light chain variable region ismutated in one or more of the framework regions. A mutation may be madein a framework region or constant domain to increase the half-life. Amutation in a framework region or constant domain also may be made toalter the immunogenicity of the antibody, to provide a site for covalentor non-covalent binding to another molecule, or to alter such propertiesas complement fixation. Mutations may be made in each of the frameworkregions, the constant domain and the variable regions in a singlemutated antibody. Alternatively, mutations may be made in only one ofthe framework regions, the variable regions or the constant domain in asingle mutated antibody.

Fusion Antibodies and Immunoadhesins

In another embodiment, a fusion antibody or immunoadhesin may be madewhich comprises all or a portion of an anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody ofthe invention linked to another polypeptide. In some embodiments, onlythe variable region of the anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody is linked tothe polypeptide. In other embodiments, the V_(H) domain of an anti-Nogoreceptor-1 antibody of this invention is linked to a first polypeptide,while the V_(L) domain of the antibody is linked to a second polypeptidethat associates with the first polypeptide in a manner that permits theV_(H) and V_(L) domains to interact with one another to form an antibodybinding site. In other embodiments, the V_(H) domain is separated fromthe V_(L) domain by a linker that permits the V_(H) and V_(L) domains tointeract with one another (see below under Single Chain Antibodies). TheV_(H)-linker-V_(L) antibody is then linked to a polypeptide of interest.The fusion antibody is useful to directing a polypeptide to a cell ortissue that expresses a Nogo receptor-1 ligand. The polypeptide ofinterest may be a therapeutic agent, such as a toxin, or may be adiagnostic agent, such as an enzyme that may be easily visualized, suchas horseradish peroxidase. In addition, fusion antibodies can be createdin which two (or more) single-chain antibodies are linked to oneanother. This is useful if one wants to create a divalent or polyvalentantibody on a single polypeptide chain, or if one wants to create abispecific antibody.

Single Chain Antibodies

The present invention includes a single chain antibody (scFv) that bindsan immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention. To producethe ScFv, V_(H)- and V_(L)-encoding DNA is operatively linked to DNAencoding a flexible linker, e.g., encoding the amino acid sequence(GlY₄-Ser)₃ (SEQ ID NO: 10), such that the V_(H) and V_(L) sequences canbe expressed as a contiguous single-chain protein, with the V_(L) andV_(H) regions joined by the flexible linker (see e.g., Bird et al.(1988) Science 242:423-426; Huston et al. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA 85:5879-5883; McCafferty et al., Nature (1990) 348:552-554). Thesingle chain antibody may be monovalent, if only a single V_(H) andV_(L) are used, bivalent, if two V_(H) and V_(L) are used, orpolyvalent, if more than two V_(H) and VL are used.

Chimeric Antibodies

The present invention further includes a bispecific antibody orantigen-binding fragment thereof in which one specificity is for animmunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention. In oneembodiment, a chimeric antibody can be generated that specifically bindsto an immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention throughone binding domain and to a second molecule through a second bindingdomain. The chimeric antibody can be produced through recombinantmolecular biological techniques, or may be physically conjugatedtogether. In addition, a single chain antibody containing more than oneV_(H) and V_(L) may be generated that binds specifically to animmunogenic polypeptide of the invention and to another molecule that isassociated with attenuating myelin mediated growth cone collapse andinhibition of neurite outgrowth and sprouting. Such bispecificantibodies can be generated using techniques that are well known forexample, Fanger et al. Immunol Methods 4: 72-81 (1994) and Wright andHarris, supra. and in connection with (iii) see e.g., Traunecker et al.Int. J. Cancer (Suppl.) 7: 51-52 (1992).

In some embodiments, the chimeric antibodies are prepared using one ormore of the variable regions from an antibody of the invention. Inanother embodiment, the chimeric antibody is prepared using one or moreCDR regions from said antibody.

Derivatized and Labeled Antibodies

An antibody or an antigen-binding fragment of the invention can bederivatized or linked to another molecule (e.g., another peptide orprotein). In general, the antibody or antigen-binding fragment isderivatized such that binding to an immunogenic polypeptide of theinvention is not affected adversely by the derivatization or labeling.For example, an antibody or antibody portion of the invention can befunctionally linked (by chemical coupling, genetic fusion, noncovalentassociation or otherwise) to one or more other molecular entities, suchas another antibody (e.g., a bispecific antibody or a diabody), adetection agent, a cytotoxic agent, a pharmaceutical agent, and/or aprotein or peptide that can mediate association of the antibody orantigen-binding fragment with another molecule (such as a streptavidincore region or a polyhistidine tag).

In some embodiments, a derivatized antibody is produced by crosslinkingtwo or more antibodies (of the same type or of different types, e.g., tocreate bispecific antibodies). Suitable crosslinkers include those thatare heterobifunctional, having two distinctly reactive groups separatedby an appropriate spacer (e.g., m-maleimidobenzoyl-N-hydroxysuccinimideester) or homobifunctional (e.g., disuccinimidyl suberate). Such linkersare available from Pierce Chemical Company, Rockford, Ill.

In some embodiments, the derivatized antibody is a labeled antibody.Exemplary, detection agents with which an antibody or antibody portionof the invention may be derivatized are fluorescent compounds, includingfluorescein, fluorescein isothiocyanate, rhodamine,5-dimethylamine-1-napthalenesulfonyl chloride, phycoerythrin, lanthanidephosphors and the like. An antibody also may be labeled with enzymesthat are useful for detection, such as horseradish peroxidase,β-galactosidase, luciferase, alkaline phosphatase, glucose oxidase andthe like. In embodiments that are labeled with a detectable enzyme, theantibody is detected by adding additional reagents that the enzyme usesto produce a detectable reaction product. For example, horseradishperoxidase with hydrogen peroxide and diaminobenzidine. An antibody alsomay be labeled with biotin, and detected through indirect measurement ofavidin or streptavidin binding. An antibody may also be labeled with apredetermined polypeptide epitopes recognized by a secondary reporter(e.g., leucine zipper pair sequences, binding sites for secondaryantibodies, metal binding domains, epitope tags).

An anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or an antigen-fragment thereof also maybe labeled with a radio-labeled amino acid. The radiolabel may be usedfor both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The radio-labeledanti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody may be used diagnostically, for example,for determining Nogo receptor-1 levels in a subject. Further, theradio-labeled anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody may be used therapeuticallyfor treating spinal cord injury. Examples of labels for polypeptidesinclude, but are not limited to, the following radioisotopes orradionucleotides —³H, ¹⁴C, ¹⁵N, ³⁵S, ⁹⁰Y, ⁹⁹Tc, ¹¹¹In, ¹²⁵I, ¹³¹I.

An anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or an antigen-fragment thereof may alsobe derivatized with a chemical group such as polyethylene glycol (PEG),a methyl or ethyl group, or a carbohydrate group. These groups may beuseful to improve the biological characteristics of the antibody, e.g.,to increase serum half-life or to increase tissue binding.

Characterization of Anti-Nogo receptor-1 Antibodies

Class and Subclass of Anti-Nogo receptor-1 Antibodies

The class and subclass of anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies may bedetermined by any method known in the art. In general, the class andsubclass of an antibody may be determined using antibodies that arespecific for a particular class and subclass of antibody. Suchantibodies are available commercially. The class and subclass can bedetermined by ELISA, Western Blot as well as other techniques.Alternatively, the class and subclass may be determined by sequencingall or a portion of the constant domains of the heavy and/or lightchains of the antibodies, comparing their amino acid sequences to theknown amino acid sequences of various class and subclasses ofimmunoglobulins, and determining the class and subclass of theantibodies.

Binding Affinity of Anti-Nogo Receptor-1 Antibody to Nogo Receptor-1

The binding affinity and dissociation rate of an anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody of the invention to an immunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptideof the invention may be determined by any method known in the art. Forexample, the binding affinity can be measured by competitive ELISAs,RIAs, BIAcore or KinExA technology. The dissociation rate also can bemeasured by BIAcore or KinExA technology. The binding affinity anddissociation rate are measured by surface plasmon resonance using, e.g.,a BIAcore.

The K_(d) of 7E11 and 1H2 were determined to be 1×10⁻⁷ M and 2×10⁻⁸ M,respectively.

Inhibition of Nogo Receptor-1 Activity by Anti-Nogo Receptor-1 Antibody

In some embodiments, an anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or anantigen-binding fragment of the invention thereof inhibits the bindingof Nogo receptor-1 to a ligand. The IC₅₀ of such inhibition can bemeasured by any method known in the art, e.g., by ELISA, RIA, orFunctional Antagonism. In some embodiments, the IC₅₀ is between 0.1 and500 nM. In some embodiments, the IC₅₀ is between 10 and 400 nM. In yetother embodiments, the antibody or portion thereof has an IC₅₀ ofbetween 60 nM and 400 nM. The IC₅₀ of 7E11 and 1H2 were determined to be400 nM and 60 nM, respectively, in a binding assay. See also Table 3,infra.

In sum, one of skill in the art, provided with the teachings of thisinvention, has available a variety of methods which may be used to alterthe biological properties of the antibodies of this invention includingmethods which would increase or decrease the stability or half-life,immunogenicity, toxicity, affinity or yield of a given antibodymolecule, or to alter it in any other way that may render it moresuitable for a particular application.

Compositions comprising, and uses of, the antibodies of the presentinvention are described below.

Soluble Nogo Receptor-1 Polypeptides

Protein

Full-length Nogo receptor-1 consists of a signal sequence, a N-terminusregion (NT), eight leucine rich repeats (LRR), a LRRCT region (a leucinerich repeat domain C-terminal of the eight leucine rich repeats), aC-terminus region (CT) and a GPI anchor (see FIG. 1).

Some embodiments of the invention provide a soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide. Soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides of the inventioncomprise an NT domain; 8 LRRs and an LRRCT domain and lack a signalsequence and a functional GPI anchor (i.e., no GPI anchor or a GPIanchor that lacks the ability to efficiently associate to a cellmembrane).

In some embodiments, a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide comprises aheterologous LRR. In some embodiments a soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide comprises 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 heterologous LRR's. Aheterologous LRR means an LRR obtained from a protein other than Nogoreceptor-1. Exemplary proteins from which a heterologous LRR can beobtained are toll-like receptor (TLR1.2); T-cell activation leucinerepeat rich protein; deceorin; OM-gp; insulin-like growth factor bindingprotein acidic labile subunit slit and robo; and toll-like receptor 4.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide of 319 amino acids (soluble Nogo receptor-1 344,sNogoR1-344, or sNogoR344) (residues 26-344 of SEQ ID NOs: 6 and 8 orresidues 27-344 of SEQ ID NO: 8). In some embodiments, the inventionprovides a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of 285 amino acids(soluble Nogo receptor-1 310, sNogoR1-310, or sNogoR310) (residues26-310 of SEQ ID NOs: 7 and 9 or residues 27-310 of SEQ ID NO: 9). SeeFIG. 1.

TABLE 1 Sequences of Human and Rat Nogo receptor-1 Polypeptides SEQ IDNO: 6 MKRASAGGSRLLAWVLWLQAWQVAAPCPGACVCYNEP (human 1-344)KVTTSCPQQGLQAVPVGIPAASQRIFLHGNRISHVPAASFRACRNLTILWLHSNVLARIDAAAFTGLALLEQLDLSDNAQLRSVDPATFHGLGRLHTLHLDRCGLQELGPGLFRGLAALQYLYLQDNALQALPDDTFRDLGNLTHLFLHGNRISSVPERAFRGLHSLDRLLLHQNRVAHVHPHAFRDLGRLMTLYLFANNLSALPTEALAPLRALQYLRLNDNPWVCDCRARPLWAWLQKFRGSSSEVPCSLPQRLAGRDLKRLAANDLQGCAVATGPYHPIWTGRATDEEPLGLP KCCQPDAADKA SEQ ID NO: 7MKRASAGGSRLLAWVLWLQAWQVAAPCPGACVCYNEP (human 1-310)KVTTSCPQQGLQAVPVGIPAASGRIFLHGNRISHVPAASFRACRNLTILWLHSNVLARIDAAAFTGLALLEQLDLSDNAQLRSVDPATFHGLGRLHTLHLDRCGLQELGPGLFRGLAALQYLYLQDNALQALPDDTFRDLGNLTHLFLHGNRISSVPERAFRGLHSLDRLLLHQNRVAHVHPHAFRDLGRLMTLYLFANNLSALPTEALAPLRALQYLRLNDNPWVCDCRARPLWAWLQKFRGSSSEVPCSLPQRLAGR DLKRLAANDLQGCA SEQ ID NO: 8MKRASSGGSRLPTWVLWLQAWRVATPCPGACVCYNEP (rat 1-344)KVTTSRPQQGLQAVPAGIPASSQRIFLHGNRISYVPAASFQSCRNLTILWLHSNALAGIDAAAFTGLTLLEQLDLSDNAQLRVVDPTTFRGLGHLHTLHLDRCGLQELGPGLFRGLAALQYLYLQDNNLQALPDNTFRDLGNLTHLFLHGNRIPSVPEHAFRGLHSLDRLLLHQNHVARVHPHAFRDLGRLMTLYLFANNLSMLPAEVLVPLRSLQYLRLNDNPWVCDCRARPLWAWLQKFRGSSSGVPSNLPQRLAGRDLKRLATSDLEGCAVASGPFRPFQTNQLTDEELLGLP KCCQPDAADKA SEQ ID NO: 9MKRASSGGSRLPTWVLWLQAWRVATPCPGACVCYNEP (rat 1-310)KVTTSRPQQGLQAVPAGIPASSQRIFLHGNRISYVPAASFQSCRNLTILWLHSNALAGIDAAAFTGLTLLEQLDLSDNAQLRVVDPTTFRGLGHLHTLHLDRCGLQELGPGLFRGLAALQYLYLQDNNLQALPDNTFRDLGNLTHLFLHGNRIPSVPEHAFRGLHSLDRLLLHQNHVARVHPHAFRDLGRLMTLYLFANNLSMLPAEVLVPLRSLQYLRLNDNPWVCDCRARPLWAWLQKFRGSSSGVPSNLPQRLAGR DLKRLATSDLEGCA

In some embodiments of the invention, the soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptides of the invention are used to inhibit the binding of aligand to Nogo receptor-1 and act as an antagonist of Nogo receptor-1ligands. In some embodiments of the invention, the soluble Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptides of the invention are used to decrease inhibitionof neurite outgrowth and sprouting in a neuron, such as axonal growthand to inhibit myelin mediated growth cone collapse in a neuron. In someembodiments, the neuron is a CNS neuron.

sNogoR310 and sNogoR344, surprisingly, block the binding of NogoA,NogoB, NogoC, MAG and OM-gp to Nogo receptor-1.

In some embodiments, the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of theinvention is a component of a fusion protein that further comprises aheterologous polypeptide. In some embodiments, the heterologouspolypeptide is an immunoglobulin constant domain. In some embodiments,the immunoglobulin constant domain is a heavy chain constant domain. Insome embodiments, the heterologous polypeptide is an Fc fragment. Insome embodiments the Fc is joined to the C-terminal end of the solubleNogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention. In some embodiments thefusion Nogo receptor-1 protein is a dimer.

Nucleic Acid Molecules of the Present Invention

The present invention provide a nucleic acid that encodes a polypeptideof the invention, including the polypeptides of any one of SEQ ID NOs:1-9. In some embodiments, the nucleic acid encodes a polypeptideselected from the group consisting of amino acid residues 26-344 of Nogoreceptor-1 as shown in SEQ ID NOs: 6 and 8 or amino acid residues 27-344of Nogo receptor-1 as shown in SEQ ID NO: 8. In some embodiments, thenucleic acid molecule encodes a polypeptide selected from the groupconsisting of amino acid residues 26-310 of Nogo receptor-1 as shown inSEQ ID NOs: 7 and 9 or amino acid residues 27-310 of Nogo receptor-1 asshown in SEQ ID NO: 9. As used herein, “nucleic acid” means genomic DNA,cDNA, mRNA and antisense molecules, as well as nucleic acids based onalternative backbones or including alternative bases whether derivedfrom natural sources or synthesized. In some embodiments, the nucleicacid further comprises a transcriptional promoter and optionally asignal sequence each of which is operably linked to the nucleotidesequence encoding the polypeptides of the invention.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a nucleic acid encoding aNogo receptor-1 fusion protein of the invention. In some embodiments,the nucleic acid encodes a Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of theinvention, including a fusion protein comprising a polypeptide selectedfrom the group consisting of amino acid residues 26-344 of Nogoreceptor-1 as shown in SEQ ID NOs: 6 and 8 or amino acid residues 27-344of SEQ ID NO: 8 and amino acid residues 26-310 of Nogo receptor-1 asshown in SEQ ID NOs: 7 and 9 or amino acid residues 27-310 of SEQ ID NO:9. In some embodiments, the nucleic acid encoding a Nogo receptor-1fusion protein further comprises a transcriptional promoter andoptionally a signal sequence. In some embodiments, the nucleotidesequence further encodes an immunoglobulin constant region. In someembodiments, the immunoglobulin constant region is a heavy chainconstant region. In some embodiments, the nucleotide sequence furtherencodes an immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region joined to a hingeregion. In some embodiments the nucleic acid further encodes Fc. In someembodiments the Nogo receptor-1 fusion proteins comprise an Fc fragment.

The encoding nucleic acids of the present invention may further bemodified so as to contain a detectable label for diagnostic and probepurposes. A variety of such labels are known in the art and can readilybe employed with the encoding molecules herein described. Suitablelabels include, but are not limited to, biotin, radiolabeled nucleotidesand the like. A skilled artisan can employ any of the art known labelsto obtain a labeled encoding nucleic acid molecule.

Compositions

In some embodiments, the invention provides compositions comprising animmunogenic polypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3, SEQ ID NO: 4 and SEQ ID NO: 5.

In some embodiments, the invention provides compositions comprising ananti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or an antigen-binding fragment thereof, ora soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or fusion protein of the presentinvention.

In some embodiments, the present invention may contain suitablepharmaceutically acceptable carriers comprising excipients andauxiliaries which facilitate processing of the active compounds intopreparations which can be used pharmaceutically for delivery to the siteof action. Suitable formulations for parenteral administration includeaqueous solutions of the active compounds in water-soluble form, forexample, water-soluble salts. In addition, suspensions of the activecompounds as appropriate oily injection suspensions may be administered.Suitable lipophilic solvents or vehicles include fatty oils, forexample, sesame oil, or synthetic fatty acid esters, for example, ethyloleate or triglycerides. Aqueous injection suspensions may containsubstances which increase the viscosity of the suspension include, forexample, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, sorbitol and dextran.Optionally, the suspension may also contain stabilizers. Liposomes canalso be used to encapsulate the molecules of this invention for deliveryinto the cell. Exemplary “pharmaceutically acceptable carriers” are anyand all solvents, dispersion media, coatings, antibacterial andantifungal agents, isotonic and absorption delaying agents, and the likethat are physiologically compatible, water, saline, phosphate bufferedsaline, dextrose, glycerol, ethanol and the like, as well ascombinations thereof. In some embodiments, the composition comprisesisotonic agents, for example, sugars, polyalcohols such as mannitol,sorbitol, or sodium chloride. In some embodiments, the compositionscomprise pharmaceutically acceptable substances such as wetting or minoramounts of auxiliary substances such as wetting or emulsifying agents,preservatives or buffers, which enhance the shelf life or effectivenessof the antibodies, antigen-binding fragments, soluble Nogo receptors orfusion proteins of the invention.

Compositions of the invention may be in a variety of forms, including,for example, liquid, semi-solid and solid dosage forms, such as liquidsolutions (e.g., injectable and infusible solutions), dispersions orsuspensions. The preferred form depends on the intended mode ofadministration and therapeutic application. In one embodiment,compositions are in the form of injectable or infusible solutions, suchas compositions similar to those used for passive immunization of humanswith other antibodies.

The composition can be formulated as a solution, micro emulsion,dispersion, liposome, or other ordered structure suitable to high drugconcentration. Sterile injectable solutions can be prepared byincorporating the anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody in the required amountin an appropriate solvent with one or a combination of ingredientsenumerated above, as required, followed by filtered sterilization.Generally, dispersions are prepared by incorporating the active compoundinto a sterile vehicle that contains a basic dispersion medium and therequired other ingredients from those enumerated above. In the case ofsterile powders for the preparation of sterile injectable solutions, thepreferred methods of preparation are vacuum drying and freeze-dryingthat yields a powder of the active ingredient plus any additionaldesired ingredient from a previously sterile-filtered solution thereof.The proper fluidity of a solution can be maintained, for example, by theuse of a coating such as lecithin, by the maintenance of the requiredparticle size in the case of dispersion and by the use of surfactants.Prolonged absorption of injectable compositions can be brought about byincluding in the composition an agent that delays absorption, forexample, monostearate salts and gelatin.

In some embodiments, the active compound may be prepared with a carrierthat will protect the compound against rapid release, such as acontrolled release formulation, including implants, transdermal patches,and microencapsulated delivery systems. Biodegradable, biocompatiblepolymers can be used, such as ethylene vinyl acetate, polyanhydrides,polyglycolic acid, collagen, polyorthoesters, and polylactic acid. Manymethods for the preparation of such formulations are patented orgenerally known to those skilled in the art. See e.g., Sustained andControlled Release Drug Delivery Systems, J. R. Robinson, ed., MarcelDekker, Inc., New York, 1978.

Supplementary active compounds also can be incorporated into thecompositions. In some embodiments, a Nogo receptor-1 antibody or anantigen-binding fragments thereof, or soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptides or fusion proteins of the invention are coformulated withand/or coadministered with one or more additional therapeutic agents.

The pharmaceutical compositions of the invention may include a“therapeutically effective amount” or a “prophylactically effectiveamount” of an antibody, antigen-binding fragment, polypeptide(s), orfusion protein of the invention. A “therapeutically effective amount”refers to an amount effective, at dosages and for periods of timenecessary, to achieve the desired therapeutic result. A therapeuticallyeffective amount of the Nogo receptor-1 antibody or antigen-bindingfragment thereof, soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or Nogo receptorfusion protein may vary according to factors such as the disease state,age, sex, and weight of the individual. A therapeutically effectiveamount is also one in which any toxic or detrimental effects of theantibody, antigen-binding fragment, soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptideor Nogo receptor fusion protein are outweighed by the therapeuticallybeneficial effects. A “prophylactically effective amount” refers to anamount effective, at dosages and for periods of time necessary, toachieve the desired prophylactic result. Typically, since a prophylacticdose is used in subjects prior to or at an earlier stage of disease, theprophylactically effective amount will be less than the therapeuticallyeffective amount.

Dosage regimens may be adjusted to provide the optimum desired response(e.g., a therapeutic or prophylactic response). For example, a singlebolus may be administered, several divided doses may be administeredover time or the dose may be proportionally reduced or increased asindicated by the exigencies of the therapeutic situation. It isespecially advantageous to formulate parenteral compositions in dosageunit form for ease of administration and uniformity of dosage unit formas used herein refers to physically discrete units suited as unitarydosages for the mammalian subjects to be treated, each unit containing apredetermined quantity of active compound calculated to produce thedesired therapeutic effect in association with the requiredpharmaceutical carrier. The specification for the dosage unit forms ofthe invention are dictated by and directly dependent on (a) the uniquecharacteristics of the antibody, antigen-binding fragment, and solublereceptor-1 polypeptide or Nogo receptor fusion protein and theparticular therapeutic or prophylactic effect to be achieved, and (b)the limitations inherent in the art of compounding such an antibody,antigen-binding fragment, and soluble receptor-1 polypeptide or Nogoreceptor fusion protein for the treatment of sensitivity in individuals.In some embodiments a therapeutically effective dose range for Nogoreceptor-1 antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof is 0.1-4mg/Kg per day. In some embodiments a therapeutically effective doserange for Nogo receptor-1 antibodies or antigen-binding fragmentsthereof is 0.2-4 mg/Kg per day. In some embodiments a therapeuticallyeffective dose range for Nogo receptor-1 antibodies or antigen-bindingfragments thereof is 0.2 mg/Kg per day.

Uses of the Antibodies, Antigen-Binding Fragments, Soluble Receptors andFusion Proteins

In some embodiments, the invention provides methods for inhibiting Nogoreceptor-1 activity by administering anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies,antigen-binding fragments of such antibodies, soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptides, or fusion proteins comprising such polypeptides to amammal in need thereof.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of inhibiting Nogoreceptor-1 binding to a ligand, comprising the step of contacting Nogoreceptor-1 with an antibody or antigen-binding fragment of thisinvention. In some embodiments, the ligand is selected from the groupconsisting of NogoA, NogoB, NogoC, MAG and OM-gp.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for inhibitinggrowth cone collapse in a neuron, comprising the step of contacting theneuron with the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof of thisinvention. In some embodiments, the invention provides a method fordecreasing the inhibition of neurite outgrowth or sprouting in a neuron,comprising the step of contacting the neuron with the antibody orantigen-binding fragment of this invention. In some embodiments, theneuron is a CNS neuron. In some of these methods, the neurite outgrowthor sprouting is axonal growth.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of promotingsurvival of a neuron in a mammal, which neuron is at risk of dying,comprising (a) providing a cultured host cell expressing (i) ananti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof; or(ii) a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide; and (b) introducing the hostcell into the mammal at or near the site of the neuron. AlmudenaRamon-Cueto, M Isabel Cordero, Fernando F Santos-Benito and Jesus Avila(2000) Functional recovery of paralegic rats and motor axon regnerationin their spinal cords by olfactory ensheathing cells. Neuron 25,425-435.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a gene therapy method ofpromoting survival of a neuron at risk of dying, which neuron is in amammal, comprising administering at or near the site of the neuron aviral vector comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes (a) ananti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof; or(b) a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide, wherein the anti-Nogoreceptor-1 antibody, antigen-binding fragment, or soluble Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptide is expressed from the nucleotide sequence in themammal in an amount sufficient to promote survival of the neuron. Viralvectors and methods useful for these embodiments are described in, e.g.,Noël et al., Human Gene Therapy, 13, 1483-93 (2002).

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of inhibiting Nogoreceptor-1 binding to a ligand, comprising the step of contacting theligand with the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or the Nogoreceptor-1 fusion protein of this invention.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method of modulating anactivity of a Nogo receptor-1 ligand, comprising the step of contactingthe Nogo receptor-1 ligand with a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide ora Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of the invention.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for inhibitinggrowth cone collapse in a neuron, comprising the step of contacting aNogo receptor-1 ligand with a soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide or aNogo receptor-1 fusion protein of this invention. In some embodiments,the invention provides a method for decreasing the inhibition of neuriteoutgrowth or sprouting in a neuron, comprising the step of contacting aNogo receptor-1 ligand with the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide orthe Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of this invention. In someembodiments, the neuron is a CNS neuron. In some embodiments, the ligandis selected from the group consisting of NogoA, NogoB, NogoC, MAG andOM-gp. In some embodiments, the neurite outgrowth or sprouting is axonalgrowth.

Any of the types of antibodies or receptors described herein may be usedtherapeutically. In some embodiments, the anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodyis a human antibody. In some embodiments, the mammal is a human patient.In some embodiments, the antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof isadministered to a non-human mammal expressing a Nogo receptor-1 withwhich the antibody cross-reacts (e.g., a primate, cynomologous or rhesusmonkey) for veterinary purposes or as an animal model of human disease.Such animal models may be useful for evaluating the therapeutic efficacyof antibodies of this invention.

In some embodiments, administration of anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody orantigen-binding fragment, or soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide orfusion protein is used to treat a spinal cord injury to facilitateaxonal growth throughout the injured site.

The anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies or antigen-binding fragments, orsoluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides or fusion proteins of the presentinvention can be provided alone, or in combination, or in sequentialcombination with other agents that modulate a particular pathologicalprocess. For example, anti-inflammatory agents may be co-administeredfollowing stroke as a means for blocking further neuronal damage andinhibition of axonal regeneration. As used herein, the Nogo receptor-1antibodies, antigen-binding fragments, soluble Nogo receptor-1 and Nogoreceptor fusion proteins, are said to be administered in combinationwith one or more additional therapeutic agents when the two areadministered simultaneously, consecutively or independently.

The anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies, antigen-binding fragments, solubleNogo receptor-1 polypeptides, Nogo receptor-1 fusion proteins of thepresent invention can be administered via parenteral, subcutaneous,intravenous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, transdermal, inhalationalor buccal routes. For example, an agent may be administered locally to asite of injury via microinfusion. Typical sites include, but are notlimited to, damaged areas of the spinal cord resulting from injury. Thedosage administered will be dependent upon the age, health, and weightof the recipient, kind of concurrent treatment, if any, frequency oftreatment, and the nature of the effect desired.

The compounds of this invention can be utilized in vivo, ordinarily inmammals, such as humans, sheep, horses, cattle, pigs, dogs, cats, ratsand mice, or in vitro.

Vectors of the Invention

In some embodiments, the invention provides recombinant DNA molecules(rDNA) that contain a coding sequence. As used herein, a rDNA moleculeis a DNA molecule that has been subjected to molecular manipulation.Methods for generating rDNA molecules are well known in the art, forexample, see Sambrook et al., (1989) Molecular Cloning—A LaboratoryManual, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. In some rDNA molecules, acoding DNA sequence is operably linked to expression control sequencesand vector sequences.

In some embodiments, the invention provides vectors comprising thenucleic acids encoding the polypeptides of the invention. The choice ofvector and expression control sequences to which the nucleic acids ofthis invention is operably linked depends directly, as is well known inthe art, on the functional properties desired (e.g., protein expression,and the host cell to be transformed). A vector of the present inventionmay be at least capable of directing the replication or insertion intothe host chromosome, and preferably also expression, of the structuralgene included in the rDNA molecule.

Expression control elements that are used for regulating the expressionof an operably linked protein encoding sequence are known in the art andinclude, but are not limited to, inducible promoters, constitutivepromoters, secretion signals, and other regulatory elements. Preferably,the inducible promoter is readily controlled, such as being responsiveto a nutrient in the host cell's medium.

In one embodiment, the vector containing a coding nucleic acid moleculewill include a prokaryotic replicon, i.e., a DNA sequence having theability to direct autonomous replication and maintenance of therecombinant DNA molecule extra-chromosomally in a prokaryotic host cell,such as a bacterial host cell, transformed therewith. Such replicons arewell known in the art. In addition, vectors that include a prokaryoticreplicon may also include a gene whose expression confers a detectableor selectable marker such as a drug resistance. Typical of bacterialdrug resistance genes are those that confer resistance to ampicillin ortetracycline.

Vectors that include a prokaryotic replicon can further include aprokaryotic or bacteriophage promoter capable of directing theexpression (transcription and translation) of the coding gene sequencesin a bacterial host cell, such as E. coli. A promoter is an expressioncontrol element formed by a DNA sequence that permits binding of RNApolymerase and transcription to occur. Promoter sequences compatiblewith bacterial hosts are typically provided in plasmid vectorscontaining convenient restriction sites for insertion of a DNA segmentof the present invention. Examples of such vector plasmids are pUC8,pUC9, pBR322 and pBR329 (Bio-Rad® Laboratories), pPL and pKK223(Pharmacia). Any suitable prokaryotic host can be used to express arecombinant DNA molecule encoding a protein of the invention.

Expression vectors compatible with eukaryotic cells, preferably thosecompatible with vertebrate cells, can also be used to form a rDNAmolecules that contains a coding sequence. Eukaryotic cell expressionvectors are well known in the art and are available from severalcommercial sources. Typically, such vectors are provided containingconvenient restriction sites for insertion of the desired DNA segment.Examples of such vectors are pSVL and pKSV-10 (Pharmacia), pBPV-1, pML2d(International Biotechnologies), pTDT1 (ATCC® 31255) and othereukaryotic expression vectors.

Eukaryotic cell expression vectors used to construct the rDNA moleculesof the present invention may further include a selectable marker that iseffective in an eukaryotic cell, preferably a drug resistance selectionmarker. A preferred drug resistance marker is the gene whose expressionresults in neomycin resistance, i.e., the neomycin phosphotransferase(neo) gene. (Southern et al., (1982) J. Mol. Anal. Genet. 1, 327-341).Alternatively, the selectable marker can be present on a separateplasmid, the two vectors introduced by co-transfection of the host cell,and transfectants selected by culturing in the appropriate drug for theselectable marker.

To express the antibodies, or antibody portions of the invention, DNAsencoding partial or full-length light and heavy chains are inserted intoexpression vectors such that the genes are operatively linked totranscriptional and translational control sequences. Expression vectorsinclude plasmids, retroviruses, cosmids, YACs, EBV-derived episomes, andthe like. The antibody gene is ligated into a vector such thattranscriptional and translational control sequences within the vectorserve their intended function of regulating the transcription andtranslation of the antibody gene. The expression vector and expressioncontrol sequences are chosen to be compatible with the expression hostcell used. The antibody light chain gene and the antibody heavy chaingene can be inserted into separate vectors. In some embodiments, bothgenes are inserted into the same expression vector. The antibody genesare inserted into the expression vector by standard methods (e.g.,ligation of complementary restriction sites on the antibody genefragment and vector, or blunt end ligation if no restriction sites arepresent).

A convenient vector is one that encodes a functionally complete humanC_(H) or C_(L) immunoglobulin sequence, with appropriate restrictionsites engineered so that any V_(H) or V_(L) sequence can be easilyinserted and expressed, as described above. In such vectors, splicingusually occurs between the splice donor site in the inserted J regionand the splice acceptor site preceding the human C region, and also atthe splice regions that occur within the human C_(H) exons.Polyadenylation and transcription termination occur at nativechromosomal sites downstream of the coding regions. The recombinantexpression vector can also encode a signal peptide that facilitatessecretion of the antibody chain from a host cell. The antibody chaingene may be cloned into the vector such that the signal peptide islinked in-frame to the amino terminus of the antibody chain gene. Thesignal peptide can be an immunoglobulin signal peptide or a heterologoussignal peptide (i.e., a signal peptide from a non-immunoglobulinprotein).

In addition to the immunogenic polypeptides, Nogo receptor-1 antibodies,antigen-binding fragments, soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides andsoluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of the present invention, therecombinant expression vectors of the invention carry regulatorysequences that control their expression in a host cell. It will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that the design of theexpression vector, including the selection of regulatory sequences maydepend on such factors as the choice of the host cell to be transformed,the level of expression of protein desired, etc. Preferred regulatorysequences for mammalian host cell expression include viral elements thatdirect high levels of protein expression in mammalian cells, such aspromoters and/or enhancers derived from retroviral LTRs, cytomegalovirus(CMV) (such as the CMV promoter/enhancer), Simian Virus 40 (SV40) (suchas the SV40 promoter/enhancer), adenovirus, (e.g., the adenovirus majorlate promoter (AdMLP)), polyoma and strong mammalian promoters such asnative immunoglobulin and actin promoters. For further description ofviral regulatory elements, and sequences thereof, see e.g., U.S. Pat.No. 5,168,062 by Stinski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,245 by Bell et al. andU.S. Pat. No. 4,968,615 by Schaffner et al.

In addition to the heterologous genes and regulatory sequences, therecombinant expression vectors of the invention may carry additionalsequences, such as sequences that regulate replication of the vector inhost cells (e.g., origins of replication) and selectable marker genes.The selectable marker gene facilitates selection of host cells intowhich the vector has been introduced (see e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos.4,399,216, 4,634,665 and 5,179,017, all by Axel et al.). For example,typically the selectable marker gene confers resistance to drugs, suchas G418, hygromycin or methotrexate, on a host cell into which thevector has been introduced. Preferred selectable marker genes includethe dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene (for use in dhfr⁻ host cellswith methotrexate selection/amplification) and the neo gene (for G418selection).

Host Cells and Methods of Recombinantly Producing Protein of theInvention

Nucleic acid molecules encoding anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies,immunogenic peptides, soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides, soluble Nogoreceptor-1 fusion proteins of this invention and vectors comprisingthese nucleic acid molecules can be used for transformation of asuitable host cell. Transformation can be by any known method forintroducing polynucleotides into a host cell. Methods for introductionof heterologous polynucleotides into mammalian cells are well known inthe art and include dextran-mediated transfection, calcium phosphateprecipitation, polybrene-mediated transfection, protoplast fusion,electroporation, encapsulation of the polynucleotide(s) in liposomes,and direct microinjection of the DNA into nuclei. In addition, nucleicacid molecules may be introduced into mammalian cells by viral vectors.

Transformation of appropriate cell hosts with a rDNA molecule of thepresent invention is accomplished by well known methods that typicallydepend on the type of vector used and host system employed. With regardto transformation of prokaryotic host cells, electroporation and salttreatment methods can be employed (see, for example, Sambrook et al.,(1989) Molecular Cloning—A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring HarborLaboratory Press; Cohen et al., (1972) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 69,2110-2114). With regard to transformation of vertebrate cells withvectors containing rDNA, electroporation, cationic lipid or salttreatment methods can be employed (see, for example, Graham et al.,(1973) Virology 52, 456-467; Wigler et al., (1979) Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci. USA 76, 1373-1376).

Successfully transformed cells, i.e., cells that contain a rDNA moleculeof the present invention, can be identified by well known techniquesincluding the selection for a selectable marker. For example, cellsresulting from the introduction of an rDNA of the present invention canbe cloned to produce single colonies. Cells from those colonies can beharvested, lysed and their DNA content examined for the presence of therDNA using a method such as that described by Southern, (1975) J. Mol.Biol. 98, 503-517 or the proteins produced from the cell may be assayedby an immunological method.

Mammalian cell lines available as hosts for expression are well known inthe art and include many immortalized cell lines available from theAmerican Type Culture Collection (ATCC®). These include, inter alia,Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, NSO, SP2 cells, HeLa cells, babyhamster kidney (BHK) cells, monkey kidney cells (COS), humanhepatocellular carcinoma cells (e.g., Hep G2), A549 cells, and a numberof other cell lines. Cell lines of particular preference are selectedthrough determining which cell lines have high expression levels. Othercell lines that may be used are insect cell lines, such as Sf9 cells.When recombinant expression vectors encoding the immunogenicpolypeptides, Nogo receptor-1 antibodies or antigen-binding fragments,soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides and soluble Nogo receptor-1 fusionproteins of the invention are introduced into mammalian host cells, theyare produced by culturing the host cells for a period of time sufficientto allow for expression of the antibody, polypeptide and fusionpolypeptide in the host cells or, more preferably, secretion of theimmunogenic polypeptides, Nogo receptor-1 antibodies or antigen-bindingfragments, soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides and soluble Nogoreceptor-1 fusion proteins of the invention into the culture medium inwhich the host cells are grown. Immunogenic polypeptides, Nogoreceptor-1 antibodies or antigen-binding fragments, soluble Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptides and soluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion proteins ofthe invention can be recovered from the culture medium using standardprotein purification methods.

Further, expression of immunogenic polypeptides, Nogo receptor-1antibodies or antigen-binding fragments, soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptides and soluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion proteins of theinvention of the invention (or other moieties therefrom) from productioncell lines can be enhanced using a number of known techniques. Forexample, the glutamine synthetase gene expression system (the GS system)is a common approach for enhancing expression under certain conditions.The GS system is discussed in whole or part in connection with EuropeanPatent Nos. 0 216 846, 0 256 055, and 0 323 997 and European PatentApplication No. 89303964.4.

Host Cells

The present invention further provides host cells transformed with anucleic acid molecule that encodes a Nogo receptor-1 antibody,antigen-binding fragment, soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide and/orsoluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of the invention. The host cellcan be either prokaryotic or eukaryotic. Eukaryotic cells useful forexpression of a protein of the invention are not limited, so long as thecell line is compatible with cell culture methods and compatible withthe propagation of the expression vector and expression of the geneproduct. Preferred eukaryotic host cells include, but are not limitedto, yeast, insect and mammalian cells, preferably vertebrate cells suchas those from a mouse, rat, monkey or human cell line. Examples ofuseful eukaryotic host cells include Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cellsavailable from the ATCC® as CCL61, NIH Swiss mouse embryo cells NIH-3T3available from the ATCC as CRL1658, baby hamster kidney cells (BHK), andthe like eukaryotic tissue culture cell lines.

Production of Recombinant Proteins using a rDNA Molecule

The present invention further provides methods for producing an a Nogoreceptor-1 antibody or antigen-binding fragment, soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide and/or soluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein of theinvention using nucleic acid molecules herein described. In generalterms, the production of a recombinant form of a protein typicallyinvolves the following steps:

First, a nucleic acid molecule is obtained that encodes a protein of theinvention. If the encoding sequence is uninterrupted by introns, it isdirectly suitable for expression in any host.

The nucleic acid molecule is then optionally placed in operable linkagewith suitable control sequences, as described above, to form anexpression unit containing the protein open reading frame. Theexpression unit is used to transform a suitable host and the transformedhost is cultured under conditions that allow the production of therecombinant protein. Optionally the recombinant protein is isolated fromthe medium or from the cells; recovery and purification of the proteinmay not be necessary in some instances where some impurities may betolerated.

Each of the foregoing steps can be done in a variety of ways. Forexample, the desired coding sequences may be obtained from genomicfragments and used directly in appropriate hosts. The construction ofexpression vectors that are operable in a variety of hosts isaccomplished using appropriate replicons and control sequences, as setforth above. The control sequences, expression vectors, andtransformation methods are dependent on the type of host cell used toexpress the gene and were discussed in detail earlier. Suitablerestriction sites can, if not normally available, be added to the endsof the coding sequence so as to provide an excisable gene to insert intothese vectors. A skilled artisan can readily adapt any host/expressionsystem known in the art for use with the nucleic acid molecules of theinvention to produce recombinant protein.

In order that this invention may be better understood, the followingexamples are set forth. These examples are for purposes of illustrationonly and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the inventionin any manner.

EXAMPLE 1 Production of Murine Monoclonal Anti-Nogo Receptor-1Antibodies

Anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies that specifically bind an immunogenicNogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention were made using thefollowing methods and procedures.

Immunizations

Two immunization approaches were used:

1. COS-7 Cells or Cell Membranes Containing Nogo Receptor-1 (NogoR-1) Asthe Immunogen

The rat Nogo receptor-1 gene (GenBank™ No. AF 462390) was subcloned intothe mammalian expression vector pEAG1256 (Biogen®) that contained theCMV promotor and geneticin resistance gene for drug selection. Therecombinant plasmid was transfected into COS-7 cells using Superfect(Qiagen®). Transfectants were selected using geneticin (Gibco™, 2mg/ml), cloned and verified for surface expression of Nogo receptor-1protein by FACS. COS-7 membranes were prepared from these cellsaccording to procedures as described [Wang et al., J. Neurochem.,75:1155-1161 (2000)] with two washings, and stored at 1 mg/ml [proteinconcentration] in 10% glycerol at −70° C.

Eight-week-old female RBF mice (Jackson Labs, Bar Harbor, Me.) wereimmunized intraperitoneally either with an emulsion containing 50 μg ratNogo receptor-1-COS-7 membranes or whole COS-7 cells expressing Nogoreceptor-1 on the surface and 50 μl RIBI MPL+TDM+CWS adjuvant (Sigma®Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.) once every two weeks (Lipman et al.,1992). Sera from the immunized mice were collected before the firstimmunization, 7 days after the second and third immunizations, and 38days after the third immunization and the anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodytiters were measured by ELISA as described below.

2. Specific Nogo Receptor-1 Peptides as the Immunogen

The rat Nogo receptor-1 gene sequence was subjected to antigenicityanalyses using Vector NTi™ software (FIG. 2). Antigenic peptidesidentified in the analyses were conjugated to Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin(KLH) using standard glutaldehyde procedures.

Eight-week-old female RBF mice (Jackson Labs, Bar Harbor, Me.) wereimmunized intraperitoneally with an emulsion containing 50 μgKLH-conjugated peptides and 50 μl complete Freund's adjuvant (Sigma®Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.) once every two weeks. Serum from theimmunized mice was collected before the first immunization and 1 weekafter the second and third immunizations and anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody titers were measured. A booster dose was given after the thirdimmunization. Three days after this booster dose immunization, fusionexperiments were initiated.

Hybridoma Production and Screening

Sera from mice immunized with antigenic Nogo receptor-1 peptides werescreened by ELISA whereas sera from mice immunized with COS-7 cellsexpressing Nogo receptor-1 were screened by flow cytometry. Mice thatwere positive for antibodies that specifically bound Nogoreceptor-1-COS-7 cells were identified by flow cytometry and weresacrificed. Splenocytes were isolated from the mice and fused to theFL653 myeloma (an APRT-derivative of a Ig-/HGPRT-Balb/c mouse myeloma,maintained in DMEM containing 10% FBS, 4500 mg/L glucose, 4 mML-glutamine, and 20 mg/ml 8-azaguanine) as described (Kennett et al.,1993. Monoclonal Antibodies: A New Dimension in Biological Analysis.Plenum Press, New York). Fused cells were plated into 24- or 48-wellplates (Corning Glass Works, Corning, N.Y.), and fed with adenine,aminopterin and thymidine containing culture media. AAT resistantcultures were screened by ELISA or flow cytometry for binding to eitherNogo receptor-1-COS-7 cells or to a Nogo receptor-1 antigenic peptide asdescribed below. Cells in the positive wells were further subcloned bylimiting dilution.

To screen for antibody binding to a Nogo receptor-1 antigenic peptide,the peptides that were used as immunogens were conjugated to BSA. 0.5 μgof the conjugated peptide in 50 μl of 0.1 M sodium bicarbonate buffer,pH 9.0 was added to each well of a 96-well MaxiSorp™ plate (Nunc™). Theplate was then incubated at 37° C. for 1 hour or 4° C. for 16 hours andnon-specific binding sites were blocked using 25 mM HEPES, pH 7.4containing 0.1% BSA, 0.1% ovalbumin, 0.1% blotto and 0.001% azide.Hybridoma supernatant was added and incubated at 25° C. for 1 hour.After washing three times with PBS, 50 μl of a 1:10,000 dilution ofhorseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-mouse secondary antibody(Jackson ImmunoResearch Inc.) was added to each well and incubatedfurther for 1 hour. After three washings, color was developed by TMB(Pierce) and stopped with 2 M sulphuric acid. Color intensity wasmonitored in a spectrophotometer at 450 .nm.

Antibodies were screened for binding to full length Nogo receptor-1 asfollows. COS-7 cells were labeled with 0.1 μM CellTracker™ Green CMFDA(Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.) as described by the vendor. Equalvolumes of CellTracker™ labeled control cells were mixed with washedNogo receptor-1-COS-7 cells before incubation with anti-Nogo receptor-1test sera. Fifty microliters of the cell mixture was dispensed into eachwell of a 96-well V-bottom polystyrene plates (Costar® 3877, Corning,N.Y.) and 100 μl of hybridoma supernatant or a control anti-Nogoreceptor-1 antibody was added. After incubation at 4° C. for 30 minutes,the cells were washed and incubated with 50 μl ofR-phycoerythrin-conjugated affinity pure F(ab′)2 fragment goatanti-mouse IgG Fc gamma specific second antibody (1:200, JacksonImmunoResearch Laboratory, West Grove, Pa.) in PBS. At the end of theincubation, the cells were washed twice with PBS and suspended in 200 μlof PBS containing 1% FBS, and subjected to FACS analyses. Alternately,Nogo receptor-1-COS-7 cells were mixed with hybridoma supernatant andthen treated with R-phycoerythrin-conjugated goat anti-mouse secondaryantibody and directly subjected to standard FACS analyses.

We generated 25 anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies using a variety ofimmunogens. We generated two antibodies, 7E11 and 5B10, using a peptidesequence corresponding to rat Nogo receptor-1 residues 110-125 as theimmunogen. We generated three antibodies, 1H2, 3G5 and 2F7, usingmembranes prepared from COS7 cells transfected with full length rat Nogoreceptor-1 as the immunogen. We generated 13 antibodies usingsNogoR310-Fc as the immunogen (1D9.3, 1E4.7, 1B4.3, 2C4.3, 1F10.3,2H1.4, 1H3.3, 1G4.1, 1E4.1, 2G7.1, 2C4.1, 2F11.1, and 1H4.1) and 7antibodies using a peptide sequence corresponding to rat Nogo receptor-1residues 423-434 as the immunogen (2E8.1, 2G11.2, and 1B5.1).

Sequence Analysis of Monoclonal Antibodies 7E11and 5B10

We extracted total RNA using Qiagen® RNeasy® mini kit, and generatedcDNA from the isolated RNA. We amplified the light chain sequence by PCRusing primers 5′-TGAGGAGACGGTGACCGTGGTCCCTTGGCCCCAG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 12)and 5′-AGGTSMARCTGCAGSAGTCWGG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 25). We amplified the heavychain sequence by PCR using primers5′-GGGGATATCCACCATGAAGTTGCCTGTTAGGCTGTTG-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 13) and5′-GGGGATATCCACCATGAGGKCCCCWGCTCAGYTYCTKGGA-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 14). Theseprimers comprise degenerate nucleotides as follows: S represents G or C;M represents A or C, R represents G or A; W represents A or T; Krepresents G or T; and Y represents T or C. We cloned the PCR fragmentsinto a sequencing vector and determined the DNA sequence of the CDRs bydideoxychain termination using primers specific for the sequencingvector. We conceptually translated the DNA sequences and partial aminoacid sequences of the CDR regions of the heavy of light chains of themonoclonal antibodies 7E11 and 5B10 are shown in Table 2. The 3 CDRsfrom the heavy and light chains of the mAbs are underlined in Table 2.The light chains of 7E11 and 5B10 are have 94% amino acid sequenceidentity and the heavy chains have 91% amino acid sequence identity.mAbs 7E11, 5B10, and 1H2 are of the IgG1 isotype and mAbs 3G5 and 2F7are of the IgG2a isotype. Each of these five mAbs has a light chain ofthe kappa isotype. We analyze the sequence of the other monoclonalantibodies by this approach.

TABLE 2 Amino Acid Sequence of mAbs 7E11 and 5B10 SEQ Sequence ID NO:7E11 MKLPVRLLVLMFWIPASSSDVVMTQTPLSLPVSLGDQ 15 LightASISCRSSQSLVHSNGNTYLHWYLQKPGQSPKLLIYK ChainVSNRFSGVPDRFSGSGSGTDFTLKISRVDAEDLGVYF CSQSTHVPFTFGGGTKLEIKRADAAPTVSISHH5B10 MKLPVRLLVLMFWIPASSSDVVMTQTPLSLPVSLGDQ 16 LightASISCRSSQSLVHSNGYTYLHWYLQRPGQSPKLLIYK ChainVSNRFSGVPDRFSGSGSGTDFTLKISRVDAEDLGVYF CSQSTHVPYTFGGGTKLEIKRADAAPTVSISHH7E11 VQLQESGAELVMPGASVKMSCKASGYTFTDYWMHWVK 17 HeavyQRPGQGLEWIGAIDPSDSYSSYNQNFKGKATLTVDGS ChainSSTAYMQLSSLTSEDSAVYYCARRITEAGAWFAYWGQ GTTVT 5B10LQXSGAEIVMPGTAVTMSCKASGYTFTDFWMHWVKQR 18 HeavyPGQGLEWIGAIDPSDSYSRINQKFKGKATLTVDESSS ChainTAYMQLSSLTSEDSAVYYCARRITEAGAWFAYWGQGT TVTInhibition of Ligand Binding to Soluble Nogo receptor-1 by Monoclonalanti-Nogo receptor-1 antibody

We tested the anti-Nogo receptor-1 monoclonal antibodies produced asdescribed above to determine whether they inhibited ligand binding toNogo receptor-1.

0.5 μg of a soluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein comprising amino acidresidues 26-344 of rat Nogo receptor-1 and the hinge and Fc region ofthe rat IgG1 molecule (sNogoR344-Fc) produced as described below wasimmobilized on 250 μg of protein-A- or wheatgerm agglutinin-conjugatedSPA beads (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) for 2 hours at 25° C. SPA beadscoupled with Fc-sNogoR-1 [WHICH sNOGO IS THIS?], anti-Nogo receptor-1mAb and 1 μl ¹²⁵I-Nogo66 (Amersham, 2000 Ci/mmol, 1 nM) in 50 μl of theHEPES-buffered incubation medium (10 mM HEPES, pH 7.4, 0.1% bovine serumalbumin, 0.1% ovalbumin, 2 mM MgCl₂, 2 mM CaCl₂ and protease inhibitors)was added to each sample well. After 16 hours, radioactivity wasmeasured in quadruplicate samples using a TopCount® (Packard). IC₅₀values were calculated from a curve-fit analysis (FIG. 3) (PRISM,GraphPad Software, N.J.). In some experiments, we also used AP-ligandconjugates (e.g. AP-Nogo66) and detected binding by monitoring alkalinephosphatase activity. We also assayed the ability of the mAbs to blockbinding of the ligands MAG-Fc and AP-OM-gp to Nogo receptor-1.

Monoclonal antibodies 7E11, 5B10, 1H2, 3G5 and 2F7 all inhibited bindingof Nogo66, MAG and OM-gp to sNogoR344-Fc. The calculated IC₅₀ for Nogo66for 7E11 and 1H2 were 400 nM and 60 nM, respectively. The data fromELISAs monitoring mAb-mediated inhibition of binding of the threeligands to Nogo receptor-1 are summarized in Table 3.

TABLE 3 mAbs Inhibit Binding of Nogo66, MAG and OM-gp to Nogoreceptor-1. MAG + Nogo66 + OM-gp + mAb sNogoR344-Fc sNogoR344-FcsNogoR344-Fc 7E11 30 nM (60%) EC₅₀ = 1.7 μM EC₅₀ = 150 nM EC₅₀ = 0.5 μM1H2 30 nM (60%) ND ND 3G5 30 nM (60%) EC₅₀ = 9 nM ND 2F7 30 nM (55%)EC₅₀ = 10 nM EC₅₀ = 5 nM 1D9.3 30 nM (70%) EC₅₀ = 13 nM EC₅₀ = 5.2 nMEC₅₀ = 2.7 nM 2G7.1 30 nM (84%) EC₅₀ = 18 nM EC₅₀ = 1 nM 1E4.1 30 nM(75%) — EC₅₀ = 9.1 nM EC₅₀ = 2.8 nM 1G4.1 30 nM (90%) — EC₅₀ = 8.2 nMEC₅₀ = 9.9 nM 2C4.1 30 nM (50%) — ND 2F11.1 30 nM (45%) ND ND 1H4.1 — NDND 2E8.1 30 nM (87%) EC₅₀ = 1.5 nM EC₅₀ = 42.9 nM EC₅₀ = 9.2 nM 2G11.230 nM (80%) ND ND 1B5.1 30 nM (0%) ND ND The percent displacement isshown at 30 nM antibody and the EC₅₀ for certain mAbs determined fromcurve-fit analysis as described. “—” indicates no detectable activityand “ND” indicates not determined.

EXAMPLE 2 Production of Fab-Phage Anti-Nogo Receptor-1 Antibodies

Anti-Nogo receptor-1 Fab-phage antibodies that specifically bind animmunogenic Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of the invention were also madeby screening a Fab-phage library as follows.

The MorphoSys Fab-phage library HuCAL® GOLD was screened againstrecombinant rat soluble sNogoR310-Fc protein and COS7 cells expressingrat Nogo receptor-1. Fab-phages that specifically bound to Nogoreceptor-1 were purified and characterized. The heavy chain of 14D5 isderived from the V_(H)2 gene and the light chain is derived from theV_(K)1 gene. The amino acid sequences of the CDRs of the heavy chain andlight chain of one of these Fab-phages, 14D5, are shown in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Amino Acid Sequence of CDRs of 14D5 Amino Acid Sequence SEQ IDNO: Heavy Chain CDR1 GFSLSTSGGSVG 19 Heavy Chain CDR2 LIYSNDTKYYSTSLKT20 Heavy Chain CDR3 SRFWTGEYDV 21 Light Chain CDR1 RASQNIAITLN 22 LightChain CDR2 LASSLQS 23 Light Chain CDR3 QQYDNYPL 24

14D5 binds to rat Nogo receptor-1 in both monovalent and bivalent forms.In addition, 14D5 binds to mouse and human Nogo receptor-1 and humanNogo receptor-2 but not mouse Nogo receptor-3.

EXAMPLE 3 Immunoprecipitation of Nogo Receptor-1 by Anti-Nogo Receptor-1Monoclonal Antibodies

To perform the immunoprecipitation, 100 μl lysed cells or 50 μl PiPLCtreated cells were mixed with 400 or 450 μl extraction buffer [10 mMTris-HCl, pH 7.2, 0.5% Tween-20™, 0.2 mM PMSF] or RIPA buffer,respectively in the presence of 30 μl Protein A or G and 1-2 μgantibody. The mixture was incubated in a shaker at 4° C. for 16 hours.

Samples were spun gently to pellet the protein A or G coupled beads. Thebeads were washed three times with 1 ml wash buffer (10 mM Tris-HC1, pH7.2, 0.1% Tween-20™). The final wash was performed using 10% of originalwash buffer.

Beads were resuspended in 100 μl of 2× SDS with 10%beta-mercaptoethanol. Samples were incubated at room temperature beforebeing run on a 4-20% Tris-Glycine gel for SDS-PAGE. As determined bySDS-PAGE gel analysis, monoclonal antibodies, 3G5 and 2F7,immunoprecipitate Nogo receptor-1.

EXAMPLE 4 Determining Antibody Specificity by ELISA

To determine the specificity of the monoclonal and Fab-phage antibodiesproduced in Examples 1 and 2, we performed an ELISA using a panel ofNogo receptor-1 polypeptides. The panel consisted of sNogoR310-Fc (afusion protein comprising amino acids 26-310 of rat Nogo receptor-1 anda rat Fc fragment), sNogoR344-Fc (see supra), polypeptide p-617 (SEQ IDNO: 1), polypeptide p-618 (a 19-amino acid polypeptide from the LRR7region of rat Nogo receptor-1; FIG. 2; SEQ ID NO: 11) and polypeptidesp-4 and p-5 (polypeptides from the LRR5 and LRRCT regions of Nogoreceptor-1, respectively). Ovalbumin and BSA were used as controls. Asshown in FIG. 4, mAbs 1H2, 3G5 and 2F7 all specifically bound tosNogoR344-Fc. In similar experiments, those antibodies also specificallybound a polypeptide consisting of amino acids 310-344 of rat Nogoreceptor-1 (SEQ ID NO: 3) and mAbs 7E11 and 5B10 specifically boundpolypeptide p-617 (SEQ ID NO: 1).

Ten of the antibodies (1D9.3, 1E4.7, 1B4.3, 2C4.3, 1F10.3, 2H1.4, 1H3.3,1G4.1, 1E4.1, and 2G7.1) from the sNogoR310-Fc immunization diplacedeach other for binding, indicating that they recognize a similar oroverlapping epitopes on sNogoR310-Fc. The other three antibodies fromthe sNogoR310-Fc immunization (2C4.1, 2F11.1, and 1H4.1) recognizedifferent epitopes located in amino acid residues 26-310.

We also performed ELISA binding assays using the Fab-phage 14D5. WhereAP-Nogo66, AP-OM-gp and MAG-Fc ligands were allowed to bind toimmobilized sNogoR344-Fc, 1 μM 14D5 completely inhibited Nogo and MAGbinding. 10 μM of 14D5 was required to completely inhibit the binding ofOM-gp to sNogoR344-Fc.

EXAMPLE 5 Neurite Outgrowth Assay

To test the ability of the monoclonal and Fab-phage antibodies producedabove to lessen the inhibitory effect of CNS myelin on neurons, Lab-Tek®culture slides (4 wells) were coated with 0.1 mg/ml poly-D-lysine(Sigma®). CNS myelin or PBS was spotted as 3 μl drops. Fluorescentmicrospheres (Polysciences) were added to the myelin/PBS to allow lateridentification of the drops (Grandpre et al, Nature 403, 2000). Lab-Tek®slides were then rinsed and coated with 10 μg/ml laminin (Gibco™).Dorsal root ganglions (DRG's) from P3-4 Sprague Dawley rat pups weredissociated with 1 mg/ml collagenase type 1 (Worthington), trituratedwith fire-polished Pasteur pipettes pre-plated to enrich in neuronalcells and finally plated at 23,000 cells/well on the pre-coated Lab-Tek®culture slides. The culture medium was F12 containing 5% heatinactivated donor horse serum, 5% heat inactivated fetal bovine serumand 50 ng/ml mNGF and incubated at 37° C. and 5% CO₂ for 6 hours.Fifteen μg/ml of mAb 7E11 was added immediately after plating.

Slides were fixed for 20 minutes with 4% paraformaldehyde containing 20%sucrose and stained for the neuronal marker anti beta-III-tubulin(Covance TUJ1) diluted 1:500. As secondary antibody anti-mouse AlexaFluor® 594 (Molecular Probes) was diluted 1:300 and slides werecoverslipped with Gel/Mount™ (Biømeda™). 5× digital images were acquiredwith OpenLab™ software and analysed by using the MetaMorph® software forquantification of neurite outgrowth.

MAb 7E11 protected DRG neurons from myelin-mediated inhibition ofneurite outgrowth. (FIG. 5). Similar results were observed with mAbs 1H2and 3G5.

In a neurite outgrowth protection assay where rat P7 DRG neurons werecultured on a CNS myelin substrate, bivalent 14D5 also efficientlypromoted neurite outgrowth.

EXAMPLE 6 Immunohistochemistry with 7E11 on Cells Transfected with NogoReceptor-1

To further characterize the binding properties of anti-Nogo receptor-1mAbs produced as described in Example 1, we compared binding to bothfixed and live COS-7 or 293 cells expressing rat or human Nogoreceptor-1.

Fixed Cells:

Nogo receptor-1 transfected and non-transfected cells were plated in8-well Lab-Tek® culture slides, fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 15minutes, blocked with 10% normal goat serum, 0.1% Triton X-100 in PBSfor 1 hour. Mab 7E11 was added at 15 μg/ml and 1.5 μg/ml in blockingsolution and incubated for 2 hours at room temperature;Alexa®-conjugated secondary antibody anti-mouse (Molecular Probes) wasincubated at a 1:300 dilution in blocking solution for 1 hour; DAPI wasadded at 5 μg/ml to the secondary antibody to label all nuclei.

Live Cells:

Transfected and non-transfected cells were plated in 8 well Lab-Tek®culture slides, blocked with FACS buffer (containing 4% donor horseserum) for 30 minutes at 4° C., incubated with 7E11 at 15 μg/ml and 1.5μg/ml in FACS buffer for 1 hour at 4° C., rinsed and incubated withsecondary antibody anti-mouse-Alexa® (1:300 in FACS buffer) for 30minutes at 4° C.

Immunohistochemical staining experiments demonstrated that all of themAbs bound cells expressing rat Nogo receptor-1. mAbs 7E11, 2G7.1 and2C4.1 bound both fixed and live cells expressing human Nogo receptor-1.

EXAMPLE 7 Mouse Model of Spinal Cord Contusive Injury

To test the effect of anti-Nogo receptor-1 mAbs produced in Example 1 onneurons in vivo, we use a mouse spinal cord contusion injury model.

Female mice (18-22 g) are treated prophylactically with analgesic andantibiotic agents. Mice are anesthetized and placed in a stereotaxicapparatus with vertebral column fixation under a stereomicroscope.Trauma to the spinal cord is introduced by a modified version of theweight-drop method (M. Li et al., Functional role and therapeuticimplications of neuronal caspase-1 and -3 in a mouse model of traumaticspinal cord injury. Neuroscience Vol. 99, pp. 333-342, 2000).

Briefly, a T9 and T10 laminectomy is made and the vertebral column isstabilized using a pair of mouse transverse clamps supporting the T9-T10transverse processes bilaterally. A stainless steel impact rod with adiameter of 1.4 mm and weight of 2 g, is raised 2.5 cm above the duraand dropped onto the spinal cord at the T10 level. During the surgery,mice are kept on a 37° C. warming blanket and 1 ml of warmed sterilesaline is administered subcutaneously to each mouse after surgery toavoid dehydration. The bladder is manually expressed once daily untilreflexive bladder control is regained.

All animals receive post-operative analgesia every 8-12 hours aftersurgery and antibiotic treatment twice daily for 7 days thereafter.Animals have free access to food and water for the duration of thestudy. Anti-Nogo receptor-1 antibodies are delivered to the injury sitevia intrathecal injection for 28 days as described in the rat spinalcord transection model below.

EXAMPLE 8 Characterization of Soluble Nogo receptor-1 Fusion Proteins

To characterize soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides (sNogoR-1) andfusion proteins (Fc-sNogoR-1) we performed the following experiment.

Three μg of soluble Nogo receptors (sNogoR310-Fc and sNogoR344-Fc) wereimmobilized on 250 μg WGA-SPA beads and received 0.5 μL of radioactiveligand (final concentration 0.5 nM) in a final volume of 100 μL ofbinding buffer (20 mM HEPES, pH 7.4, 2 mM Ca, 2 mM Mg, 0.1% BSA, 0.1%ovalubmin and protease inhibitors). Ligands included 10 μM Nogo66, 10 μM¹²⁵I-Nogo40(amino acids 1-40 of NogoA) and 10 μL of anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody supernatant for each ligand set. The three tyrosines on Nogo40were separately iodinated and designated as Nogo40-A, -B and -Crespectively. Mean values of triplicates are presented as normalized %bound radioactivity (FIGS. 6, 7 and 8). Error bars indicate SEM. Boundradioactivity in the absence of inhibitors was taken as 100% and thelowest bound radioactivity in the presence of 10 μM Nogo40 was taken asthe 0% for data normalization.

EXAMPLE 9 Inhibition of Ligand Binding to Soluble Nogo receptor-1 FusionProtein

A binding assay similar to the binding assay of Example 8 was used totest the ability of two mAbs produced in Example 1 to inhibit¹²⁵I-Nogo66 binding to sNogoR344-Fc. Mabs 2F7 and 3G5 inhibited¹²⁵I-Nogo66 binding to sNogoR344-Fc.

EXAMPLE 10 Neurite Outgrowth Assay

Lab-Tek® culture slides (4 wells) were coated with 0.1 mg/mlpoly-D-lysine (Sigma®). CNS myelin alone or mixed with sNogoR310,sNogoR310-Fc fusion protein, mAb 5B10 or control PBS were separatelyspotted as 3 μl drops. Fluorescent microspheres (Polysciences) wereadded to the myelin/PBS to allow later identification of the drops(Grandpre et al, Nature 403, 2000). Lab-Tek® slides were then rinsed andcoated with 10 μg/ml laminin (Gibco™)

Dorsal root ganglions (DRG's) from P3-4 Sprague Dawley rat pups weredissociated with 1 mg/ml collagenase type 1 (Worthington), trituratedwith fire-polished Pasteur pipettes pre-plated to enrich in neuronalcells and finally plated at 23,000 cells/well on the pre-coated Labtekculture slides. The culture medium was F12 containing 5% heatinactivated donor horse serum, 5% heat inactivated fetal bovine serumand 50 ng/ml mNGF and incubated at 37° C. and 5% CO₂ for 6 hours.

Slides were fixed for 20 minutes with 4% paraformaldehyde containing 20%sucrose and stained for the neuronal marker anti beta-III-tubulin(Covance TUJ1) diluted 1:500. As secondary antibody anti-mouse AlexaFluor® 594 (Molecular Probes) was diluted 1:300 and slides werecoverslipped with Gel/Mount™ (Biømeda™). 5× digital images were acquiredwith OpenLab™ software and analyzed by using the MetaMorph® software forquantification of neurite outgrowth.

sNogoR310, sNogoR310-Fc and mAb 5B10 all protected DRG neurons frommyelin-mediated inhibition of neurite outgrowth (FIGS. 9-11). sNogoR310was used in a similar assay using chick neurons and was found to beprotective.

We also tested the neuro-protective effect of soluble Nogo receptors byperforming experiments with cells grown in the presence and absence oflaminin. Neuronal cell growth in media without laminin is poor andmodels neuronal stress conditions.

DRG's were dissected from post-natal day 6-7 rat pups (P6-7),dissociated into single cells and plated on 96-well plates pre-coatedwith poly-D-lysine as described above. In some wells 2 μg/ml laminin wasadded for 2-3 hours and rinsed before the cells were plated. After an18-20 h incubation the plates were fixed with 4% para-formaldehyde,stained with rabbit anti-Beta-III-tubulin antibody diluted 1:500(Covance®) and anti-HuC/D diluted 1:100 (Molecular Probes), andfluorescent secondary antibodies (Molecular Probes) were added at 1:200dilution. The ArrayScan® II (Cellomics®) was used to capture 5× digitalimages and to quantify neurite outgrowth as average neuriteoutgrowth/neuron per well, by using the Neurite outgrowth application.Nine 5× images from 3 wells/condition were analyzed.

In some experiments, a sub-clone of PC12 cells (Neuroscreen™) was used(Cellomics®). The Neuroscreen™ cells were pre-differentiated for 7 dayswith 200 ng/ml NGF, detached and replated on 96-well plates pre-coatedwith poly-D-lysine. In some wells 5 μg/ml laminin was added for 2-3hours and rinsed before the cells were plated. After 2 days incubationthe plates were fixed with 4% para-formaldehyde, stained with rabbitanti-Beta-III-tubulin antibody diluted 1:500 (Covance®) and Hoechst(nuclear stain). The ArrayScan® II was used to quantify neuriteoutgrowth as in the DRG cells.

sNogoR344-Fc or rat IgG were added in solution to P6-7 DRG neurons andto differentiated Neuroscreen™ cells at the time of plating.

The neuro-protective effect of sNogoR344-Fc was observed at 1 μM and 10μM when P6 DRG neurons were grown in the absence of laminin.Quantification of neurite outgrowth showed a dose-dependent increasewith the addition of sNogoR344-Fc. Addition of sNogoR344-Fc at the sameconcentrations to DRG neurons growing on a laminin substrate, did notproduce any unusual effect, indicating that sNogoR344-Fc is only activeon stressed cells. The neuro-protective effect of sNogoR344-Fc at thesame concentrations in the absence of laminin also was seen withNeuroscreen™ cells.

EXAMPLE 11 Production and Purification of Fc-sNogoR-1 Fusion Protein

A cDNA construct encoding amino acids 1-310 of rat Nogo receptor-1 wasfused to rat IgG1 Fc contained in a mammalian expression vector and thisvector was electroporated into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) (DG44) cells.Cells were maintained in alpha-MEM, supplemented with 10% dialyzed fetalbovine serum, 2 mM glutamine and antibiotic-antimycotic reagents. Twodays after transfection, the conditioned media was collected andanalyzed by Western blot under reducing conditions. A protein band about60 kDa was detected using a polyclonal rabbit anti-Nogo receptor-1antibody. Cells were expanded and sorted using a R-PE conjugated goatanti-rat IgG antibody. After the second sorting, cells were plated at adensity of one cell/well in 96-well plates. Secreted soluble Nogoreceptor-1 protein levels from individual wells was tested and comparedusing a Sandwich ELISA. ELISA plate was coated with goat anti-rat IgGFCK specific antibody. Conditioned media was applied. The bound solubleNogo receptor-1 protein was detected by HRP conjugated donkey anti-ratIgG Fab, Fc-specific antibody. Clone 4C12 had the highest secretionlevel. 4C12 was expanded and grown in CHO-M7 media in spinner flask. Thesecretion level was about 10 mg/L at 37° C.

CHO cells expressing the sNogoR310-Fc fusion protein were cultured inlarge scale. 1.7 L of concentrated conditioned media was obtained from a10 L bioreactor run. The pH was raised by addition of one-tenth volume1.0 M Tris-HCl, pH 8.9. Solid sodium chloride and glycine were added to3.0 M and 1.5 M respectively. A 60 mL protein A-Sepharose™ columnequilibrated with 10 mM Tris-HCl, 3 M sodium chloride, 1.5 M glycine, pH8.9 was prepared. Concentrated conditioned media was applied to thecolumn at 1.5 mL/min using a peristaltic pump. The column was washedwith 300 mL of 10 mM Tris-HCl, 3 M sodium chloride, 1.5 M glycine, pH8.9 followed with 120 mL 5 mM Tris-HCl, 3 M sodium chloride, pH 8.9.Protein was eluted with 25 mM sodium phosphate, 100 mM sodium chloride,pH 2.8. 10 mL fractions were collected in tubes containing 1.0 mL of 1.0M HEPES, pH 8.5. Protein fractions were pooled and dialyzed against 3×2L of 5 mM sodium phosphate, 300 mM NaCl, pH 7.4.

EXAMPLE 12 Spinal Cord Transection Assay

To test their ability to promote functional recovery in vivo, ansNogoR-1 fusion protein was tested in a rat spinal cord transectionassay.

Alzet® osmotic pumps were loaded with test solution (sNogoR310-Fc inPBS) made up freshly on the day of use. The loading concentration wascalculated to be 5 and 50 μM. Pumps were primed for >40 hours at 37° C.prior to implantation into animals. Female Long Evans rats were givenpre-operative analgesia and tranquilizer and anesthetized usingisoflurane (3% in O₂).

Rats were placed in a stereotaxic frame and the motor cortex exposed forinfusion of the tract tracing agent BDA (10,000 MW) bilaterally. Ratsthen underwent dorsal hemisection of the spinal cord at T5-T6 followedby implantation of the intrathecal catheter and pump system to delivertest compound (n=11 per group).

Rats were allowed to recover and survive up to 28 days after surgery.Behavioral scoring using the BBB system was recorded up to 28 days afterinduction of injury, just prior to termination of the in-life phase ofthe study. Following perfusion and fixation, spinal cords were removed,cryoprotected, sectioned, stained and axonal counts performed.

The Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale (Basso et al.,1996, Neurotrauma 13, 343-359), the inclined plane test and the inclinedgrid walking test (Li and Strittmatter, 2003, J. Neurosci. 2003, 23,4219-27) were monitored in rats and mice after injury. For the inclinedplane test, we measured the maximal angle to which a 50 cm×60 cm boardcould be angled for 5 sec without the mouse sliding off. For inclinedgrid walking, the mice were trained to climb a wire grid (35 cm longwith 2.54 cm squares) at a slope of 45 degrees. The number of instancesin which the hindpaw dropped below the grid plane was scored for eachexcursion from bottom to top. For the rat behavioral testing, BBBlocomotor scale, grid walking and footprint analysis were performed. Forgrid walking, the rats were trained to walk on a wire grid (70 cm longwith 2.54 cm squares), and the number of instances in which the hindpawdropped below the grid plane was counted. For footprint analysis, thewalking patterns of rat hindpaws were recorded with ink during acontinuous locomotion across a 90 cm runway, and stride length on eachside and stride width were calculated (Metz et al., 2000, Brain Res.,883, 165-177). All of these behavioral tests were performed by at leasttwo individuals. Throughout the surgery, behavioral testing andhistologic analysis, researchers were blind to the identity of thecompound in the minipump.

sNogoR310-Fc promoted functional recovery (FIG. 12).

EXAMPLE 13 Rat Spinal Cord Contusion Assay

The effect of soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptides and fusion proteinson neurons in vivo are tested in a rat spinal cord contusion assay.

Female hooded Long Evans rats (170-190 g) are treated prophylacticallywith analgesic and antibiotic agents. Ten minutes before surgery,animals are tranquilized with 2.5 mg/kg Midazolam i.p. and anesthetizedin 2-3% isoflurane in O₂. Rats are then shaved, wiped down with alcoholand betadine, and ocular lubricant applied to their eyes. Next, anincision is made down the midline and the T7 to T12 vertebrae exposed.

A dorsal laminectomy is performed at T9 ½ and T10 to expose the cord.The rat is mounted on the Impactor. T7 and T8 segments are first clampedand then the T11 and T12 segments are attached to the caudal clamp. Asoft material is placed underneath the chest of the rat. The Impactorrod is set to the zero position and the electrical ground clip isattached to the wound edge. The Impactor rod is then raised to 25.0 mmand appropriately adjusted to a position directly above the exposedspinal cord. Next, the Impactor rod is released to hit the exposed cordand the Impactor rod is immediately lifted.

The rat is then dismounted, and Gelfoam® placed on the wound. The muscleover the wound is sutured, and the incision is surgically stapled.Animals are placed in an incubator until they recover from anesthesia.Rats are given antibiotics, analgesics, and saline as required. Bladdersare expressed every morning and evening thereafter until function isrecovered.

Soluble Nogo receptor-1 fusion protein (e.g., sNogoR310-Fc) isadministered intrathecally as described in the rat spinal cordtransection model above. BBB scoring is performed one-day after surgery,then every week thereafter until 4 to 6 weeks.

EXAMPLE 14 Expression of sNogoR310 in Transgenic Mice

We produced transgenic mice expressing soluble Nogo receptor-1 proteinto test its effect when expressed in vivo.

We cloned the mouse sNogoR310 cDNA (corresponding to amino acids. 1-310of the Nogo receptor-1) into the NotI site of the C-3123 vector. In thisvector, sNogoR310 expression is under the control of the glialfibrillary acidic protein (gfap) gene regulatory elements, which allowhigh level expression with enhanced secretion from reactive astrocytesat site of injury. We digested the resulting vector sequentially withAatII and SfiI and isolated the gfap::sNogoR310 construct on a 3.4 kbfragment. We microinjected this fragment into embryos to generatetransgenic mice. We verified by PCR that the transgene had integratedand identified five founder lines. We crossed heterozygous males of thetwo founder lines with the highest expression levels to female C57BL/6Jmice. We confirmed that the GFAP-positive cells express and secretesNogoR310 in heterozygous transgenic mice by Western blot analysis usingantibody raised against Nogo receptor-1.

We homogenized the cortex and spinal cord in Tris-buffered salinesupplemented with protease inhibitors (Roche) and centrifuged thehomogenate at 40,000 rpm for 20 min at 4° C. We treated the supernatantwith 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min to enhance antibody specificity anddialyzed prior to immunoblotting. We homogenized the particulatefraction by sonication in RIPA buffer (1% Triton® X-100, 0.5% sodiumdeoxycholate, 0.1% SDS in PBS), centrifuged the resulting homogenate andtreated this supernatant (detergent-soluble particulate fraction) asabove. We analyzed 20 μg of brain or spinal cord protein by immunoblotusing rabbit antiserum raised against Nogo receptor-1 at 1:2000dilution. We visualized immunoreactivity by incubation withAP-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG and NBT/BCIP AP substrates.

We detected secreted 37 kDa sNogoR310 in detergent-free soluble extractsof cortex and spinal cord from the two transgenic lines Tg08 and Tg01,but little if any soluble Nogo receptor-1 protein at 37 or 81 kDa ispresent in littermate wild type (WT) mice. Examination of theparticulate fractions demonstrated that there were comparable levels ofendogenous Nogo receptor-1 in both WT and transgenic mice.

EXAMPLE 15 Expression of sNogoR310 in Transgenic Mice After Injury

We tested the effect of CNS injury on sNogoR310 expression in transgenicmice by performing a dorsal over-hemisection injury. We obtainedsNogoR310 transgenic and nontransgenic control animals by matingheterozygous males with C57/BL6 females as described in Example 14.

We deeply anesthetized adult female heterozygous transgenic orlittermate WT mice (10-16 weeks of age) and performed a completelaminectomy, fully exposing the dorsal part of spinal cord at T6 and T7levels. We performed a dorsal over-hemisection at T6 with a 30-gaugeneedle and a pair of microscissors to completely sever the dorsal anddorsolateral corticospinal tracts (CSTs). We passed a marked needleacross the dorsal part of the spinal cord several times to assure thatthe lesion was at a depth of 1.0 mm. We sutured the muscle layers overthe laminectomies and closed the skin on the back with surgical staples.To trace the corticospinal tracts, we made a burr hole overlyingcerebral cortex on the right side into the skull 14 days after spinalcord injury. We applied the tracer BDA (MW 10,000, 10% in PBS)(Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.) to 4 injection sites at a depth of 0.7mm from the cortical surface. Four weeks after injury, the mice wereperfused transcardially with PBS, followed by 4% paraformaldehyde. Miceused for sNogoR310 expression experiments did not receive any tracerinjection.

For the mice used for western blot analysis, the spinal cord at a levelbetween T3 and L3 was collected without perfusion 14 days after injury.Mice used for Nogo receptor-1 immunohistochemical staining were perfusedwith 4% paraformaldehyde 10 days after hemisection, and the injuredspinal cord was removed for sectioning. To examine sNogoR310 expressionin the injured brain of transgenic and WT mice, a cortex stab injury wasperformed with a number 11 scalpel blade held in a stereotaxic apparatus(David Kopf, Tujunga, Calif.). A 4 mm parasagittal cut was made, 0.5 mmposterior to Bregma, 1.5 mm laterally from midline and 3.5 mm deep.

We detected increased levels of sNogoR310 in soluble extracts of spinalcords ten days after the injury in transgenic mice but not in WT mice,consistent with the upregulation after injury of GFAP around the lesion.To confirm that this was not due to compensatory upregulation of Nogo-A,we tested its expression and found that it was similar in either intactor injured cortex and spinal cord from either WT and transgenic mice.

We examined the cellular expression of sNogoR310 in injured CNS byimmunostaining the injured brain and spinal cord containing the lesionarea with antibodies against Nogo receptor-1 and GFAP. The generalmorphology of reactive astrocytic glia does not differ between WT andtransgenic mice, but the density stained for Nogo receptor-1 in bothintra- and extracellular space is remarkably higher in thegfap::sNogoR310 transgenic mice than in WT mice, indicating increasedsNogoR310 expression around the lesion in transgenic mice. Nogoreceptor-1 protein is co-localized with astrocytic marker GFAP only inthe transgenic mice. There is also a greatly enhanced diffusenon-cellular staining in the transgenic samples, consistent withsNogoR310 in the extracellular space. Neuronal cell body Nogo receptor-1staining is detected in both WT and transgenic mice.

EXAMPLE 16 Secreted sNogoR310 Induces CST Sprouting in Transgenic Mice

We tested whether increased expression of sNogoR310 around the lesion intransgenic mice results in the regeneration of injured axons.

We investigated the integrity of descending corticospinal tracts (CST)by injecting anterograde tracer biotin dextran amine (BDA) into theright motor cortex as described in Li and Strittmatter, 2003, J.Neurosci., 23, 4219-27. In littermate WT mice, the prominent dorsal CST(dCST) is tightly bundled rostral to the lesion, and a few dorsolateralCST fibers are visible ipsilaterally. A small number of BDA-labeledshort collateral sprouts project into gray matter, particularly in theventral cord, but the sprouting is largely confined to the side of thecord contralateral to the tracer injection. However, the sectionsrostral to dorsal hemisection from injured sNogoR310 transgenic miceindicate a quite different BDA labeling pattern. A high density ofBDA-labeled CST fibers are observed outside of prominent dCST in all thetransgenic mice from line Tg08 or line Tg01. Ectopic fibers extendthroughout the gray matter area, and some fibers reach into lateral anddorsolateral white matter. Several fibers (4-12 sprouts per transversesection) are seen on the opposite side of the spinal cord (ipsilateralto the tracer injection site). Micro densitometric measurement of thecollateral sprouts indicates approximately a tenfold increase insprouting density in sNogoR310 transgenic mice. Examination ofparasagittal longitudinal sections from 1 to 4 mm rostral to the lesionreveals that dCST fibers extend a large number of branching sprouts intothe ventral gray matter area in sNogoR310 transgenic mice, in contrastto the littermate WT animals. Generally, the pattern and extent ofsprouting rostral to the lesion in transgenic mice are similar to thoseobserved in the mice treated systemically with Nogo receptor-1antagonist peptide NEP1-40 (Li and Strittmatter, 2003).

These results demonstrate that secreted sNogoR310 induces CST sproutingin the transgenic mice.

EXAMPLE 17 Regenerating CST Axons Bypass the Lesion Site into DistalSpinal Cord in sNogoR310 Transgenic Mice

We isolated spinal cord 4 mm rostral to and 4 mm caudal to the lesionsite (8 mm long in total) from transgenic mice and embedded it in aglutaraldehyde-polymerized albumin matrix, and cut parasagittally on avibratome (30 μm thick). We collected transverse sections (50 μm) fromthe spinal cord 5-7 mm rostral to and 5-7 mm caudal to the injury site.For sNogoR310-Fc injection experiments in rats, the spinal cordextending from 10 mm rostral to 10 mm caudal from the lesion site wascut parasaggitally (50 μm) on a vibrating microtome. Transverse sectionswere collected from the spinal cord 11-16 mm rostral to and 11-16 mmcaudal to the injury site. We incubated the sections withavidin-biotin-peroxidase complex and visualized the BDA tracer bynickel-enhanced diaminobenzidine HRP reaction (Grandpre, 2002, Nature,417, 547-551). We processed some sections for serotoninimmunohistochemistry (anti-5-HT antibody) by indirect immunofluoresence.To visualize the lesion area, we double-stained some sections withantibodies directed against GFAP (Sigma®, St. Louis, Mo.). We mounted,dehydrated and covered the sections with mounting medium.

We tested whether the fibers induced by sNogoR310 expressed intransgenic mice after injury (see Example 16) cross the lesion area intothe caudal spinal cord to provide functional recovery.

Consecutive parasaggital sections across the injury site drawn in cameralucida display the overall distribution pattern of the regenerating CSTfibers a few millimeters from the lesion. Sections from WT mice show noCST fibers extending beyond the injury site. Similar sections fromsNogoR310 transgenic mice display numerous CST fibers that cross thetransection area and project into the distal gray and white matter areasin a highly branched pattern. Immediately rostral to hemisection, a highdensity of BDA-labeled CST sprouting originated from prominent dCSTprojects into the lesion area, but most CST sprouts failed to pass thetransection area where scar formation and tissue cavitation areprominent. A small but highly significant fraction of the regeneratingaxons bypass the lesion site through the remaining tissue bridges of theventral and ventrolateral gray and white matter. In addition, a few CSTfibers appear to cross the transection area itself via the lesioneddorsal and dorsolateral spinal cord into distal regions. In the vicinityof lesion, the course of regenerating fibers was typically tortuous andquite distinct from the normal straight fibers in the rostral CST.Collaterals and arborized fibers are most frequently seen in gray matterarea of distal spinal cord. The reconstructions demonstrate 5-15BDA-labeled regenerating fibers coursing in the rostral-caudal axis atany level 1-4 mm caudal to the lesion in each transgenic mouse. Fortransverse sections 5-7 mm caudal to dorsal hemisection, BDA-labeled CSTaxons are seen in both the gray matter and white matter areas in eachtransgenic mouse. The fiber counts for the transgenic mice indicateapproximately a similar number of BDA-labeled CST fibers to the proximallevels in the sagittal sections.

In addition to CST fibers, the other descending tracts, such asraphespinal fibers, also contribute to locomotor function in mice. Inthis mouse dorsal over-hemisection model, the transection injures amajority of the serotonergic fibers, decreasing the density of thesefibers by approximately 80% in the ventral horn. Analysis of totallength of serotonin fibers in the ventral horn of caudal spinal cordindicates a much greater number of these fibers in transgenic mice thanWT group, indicating that the growth-promoting effects of sNogoR310 intransgenic mice are not limited to one axon descending pathway.

EXAMPLE 18 Transgenic Expression of sNogoR310 Improves LocomotorRecovery

The CST axon tracing and serotonergic fiber analysis indicate that thesNogoR310 released from astrocytes in transgenic mice stimulatesextensive anatomical regeneration of injured descending axons in thespinal cord. We performed several behavioral tests as described inExample 12 to determine whether these regenerated fibers benefitfunctional recovery.

As assessed by the BBB test, the WT mice partially recover locomotorfunction during a 4-week period of survival. At 4 weeks post-injury,most WT mice recover a level characterized by consistent plantarstepping with consistent weight support, but they exhibit onlyoccasional to frequent forelimb-hindlimb coordination, with a rotationof predominant paw position when making initial contact with surface. Incontrast, the BBB scores of sNogoR310 transgenic mice from both linesTg08 and Tg 01 are significantly higher than control group throughoutthe 7-28 day observation period (FIGS. 13A and 13B). At 28 days afterinjury, most transgenic mice show consistent forelimb-hindlimbcoordination, and the predominant paw position is parallel to the body.

We employed two more behavioral tests to further characterize theperformance of sNogoR310 transgenic mice. First, we measured the maximalangle to which a board would be tilted without a mouse losing its gripwithin 5 sec. Before dorsal hemisection injury, both transgenic and WTmice can sustain their posture on board angled at 55 degrees. On days7-28 after injury, the sustainable angle is reduced in all mice, but theangles sustainable by the transgenic mice are significantly greater thanthose for the control group (FIG. 13C). In another behavioral test, miceclimbed a grid placed at a 45 degree angle to vertical and excursions ofthe hindlimbs below the plane of the grid were counted (Metz et al.,2000). No mice made errors on this test during the pre-injury training.There are numerous foot fault errors with only minimal improvement in WTmice during the period 2-6 weeks post-injury. In contrast, the sNogoR310transgenic mice exhibit a progressive improvement in grid climbingduring this period, with the majority of improvement occurring between1-3 weeks post-injury (FIG. 13D). Thus, transgenic mice secretingsNogoR310 from astrocytes exhibit CST regeneration, raphespinalsprouting and improved motor function after thoracic spinal hemisection.

EXAMPLE 19 Intrathecal Administration of sNogoR310-Fc Protein InducesCST Sprouting

As a second test of the growth-promoting benefit of soluble Nogoreceptor-1 after spinal trauma, we administered the purified proteinintrathecally.

We fused the ligand binding domain (27-310) of rat Nogo receptor-1 tothe rat IgG1 Fc domain to promote stability and purification. Wepurified protein from stably transfected CHO cells. This protein blocksNogo-66, MAG and myelin action in vitro, as shown previously for mousesNogoR310-Myc His (Fournier et al., 2002, J. Neurosci., 22, 8876-8883;Liu et al., 2002, Science, 297, 1190-1193). We delived sNogoR310-Fcprotein intrathecally to rats with a mid-thoracic dorsal hemisectioninjury through an osmotic minipump. During a four-week survival periodafter injury, 1.2 mg sNogoR310-Fc protein was locally administered ineach rat. In rats receiving the vehicle treatment (1.2 mg rat IgG),sections rostral to hemisection display the tightly bundled prominentdorsal CST and very few ectopic BDA-labeled CST fibers above the lesionsite. Sections rostral to lesion from injured rats receivingsNogoR310-Fc protein exhibit a quite different pattern of labeling.Numerous ectopic fibers sprouting from the BDA-labeled CST are observedfrom transverse and parasagittal sections. In some cases, projectionscross from the dCST area near the midline to the circumference of thecord, becoming intermingled with the dorsolateral CST. The sproutingaxons extend through gray matter to a greater extent than white matter.A measure of ectopic sprouting fibers (≧100 μm in transverse sections,≧200 μm in sagittal sections) adjacent to the dCST reveals a greaterincrease in the sNogoR310-Fc-treated rats.

EXAMPLE 20 CST Axons Regenerate into Distal Spinal Cord in sNogoR310-FcTreated Rats

We deeply anaesthetized female Sprague-Dawley rats (190-250 g) andconducted laminectomies at spinal levels of T6-7, exposing the spinalcord. We cut the dorsal half of the spinal cord with a 30-gauge needleand a pair of microscissors to sever the dorsal parts of CSGT tracts,and assured the depth of the lesion (1.8 mm) by passing the sharp partof a number 11 blade across the dorsal half of the cord (Grandpre etal., 2002, Nature, 417, 547-551). An osmotic minipump (Alzet® 2ML4, 2 mlvolume, 2.5 μl/h, 28 day delivery), which was filled with 1.2 mg rat IgGin PBS or 1.2 mg sNogoR310-Fc fusion protein in PBS, was sutured tomuscles under the skin on the back of the animals. A catheter connectedto the outlet of the minipump was inserted into the intrathecal space ofthe spinal cord at the T7-8 level through a small hole in the dura.

Nogo receptor-1 antagonist protein infusion induced extensive sproutingrostral to a rat hemisection, but a more critical issue is whether thesprouting CST fibers project to distal spinal cord and contribute tolocomotor recovery. Longitudinal sections across lesion site fromvehicle-treated rats display no detectable or a very small number ofBDA-labeled ventral CST fibers below the lesion level (GrandPre et al.,2002; Weidner et al., 2001, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 98, 3513-3518).The similar sections from sNogoR310-Fc treated rats demonstrate manyBDA-labeled fibers bypass the transection site and project to the caudalspinal cord largely through the bridging tissues of the ventral andventrolateral spinal cord. Immunostaining for astrocytic marker GFAPdisplay that the extent of transection reached deeper than central canalarea. Unlike the linear profile of rostral fibers in prominent dorsalCST, the regenerated CST fibers usually follow a highly branchingtrajectory in the distal spinal cord, particularly in gray matter area.These fibers are detected in many regions of spinal cord, but they aremore easily seen in the central part and dorsal half of spinal cordthroughout the spinal cord. Counts of CST fibers from sagittal sectionsindicate approximately 20 BDA-labeled axons at 1-2 mm caudal to lesionand 15 traced axons at 7-8 mm distal to lesion from eachsNogoR310-Fc-treated rat.

Generally, the branching pattern of these fibers is similar to thatobserved from local NEP 1-40 peptide treated animals, but morecollateral branching in each sprout is seen from the sections treatedwith sNogoR310-Fc protein. A measure of the sprouts from distal spinalcord demonstrates that the total collateral length of each sprout insNogoR310-Fc-treated rats is twice as great as that from NEP1-40-treated animals. The number of sprouts (≧200 μm in length) at 1-10mm caudal to spinal cord in both Nogo receptor-1 antagonist-treatedgroups is approximately 20-40 times greater than control groups. Moresprouts are seen from sNogoR310-Fc treated rats than local NEP 1-40treatment (˜50 vs. 25 sprouts/rat), but this difference is notstatistically significant (p=0.1713, t-test).

Regenerating CST axons are observed in transverse sections of spinalcord 11-15 mm caudal to hemisection in rats receiving sNogoR310-Fctreatment. These fibers are detected in both gray matter and whitematter of the spinal cord. The fibers detected in gray matter oftenexhibit more collateral branching than in white matter area. Incontrast, in transverse sections from vehicle-treated group, onlyoccasional BDA-labeled are seen in the ventral white matter area,consistent with the uninjured ventral CST axons. At this level of distalspinal cord, the average number of BDA-labeled CST fibers from both Nogoreceptor-1 antagonist-treated groups [sNogoR310-Fc and NEP 1-40] areapproximately 20-fold greater than vehicle-treated rats. Taken together,both Nogo receptor antagonists, sNogoR310-Fc protein and NEP 1-40peptide, result in dramatic CST axon regeneration in distal spinal cord,but the sprouting induced by the former exhibits a more highly branchedpattern.

EXAMPLE 21 Local sNogoR310-Fc Induces Sprouting of Rubropinal andSerotonergic Axons in Injured Rat Spinal Cord

Fourteen days after hemisection, a burr hole was made on each side ofthe skull overlying the sensorimotor cortex of the lower limbs to traceCST fibers. The anterograde neuronal tracer BDA (10% in PBS, 3.5 μl percortex) was applied at seven injection sites at a depth of 1.5 mm fromdura on each side (Grandpre, 2002). For rubrospinal tract tracing inrats, the tracer BDA (1 μl; MW 10,000; 10% in PBS) was injected into rednucleus on the left side (5.8 mm posterior to bregma, 0.7 mm lateral,7.0 mm ventral to the skull surface). Two weeks after BDA injection,these animals were perfused with PBS, followed by 4% paraformadehyde,and tissue was collected for histology.

Repair of injured rubrospinal tract (RST) fibers contribute tofunctional improvements after spinal cord injury (Liu et al., 1999, J.Neurosci., 19, 4370-4387). The widespread distribution of Nogoreceptor-1 in CNS neurons (Wang et al., 2002, J. Neurosci., 22,5505-5515) makes it possible that inhibition of Nogo receptor-1 with itsantagonist may result in regrowth of RST axons after injury. To testeffects of sNogoR310-Fc on injured RST, the integrity of this pathwaywas traced by injecting BDA into left red nucleus. At the spinal cordlevel, RST fibers are normally located in dorsolateral white matter areaof spinal cord, and are transected by the dorsal hemisections of thisstudy. In transverse sections 11-15 mm rostral to lesion from controlrats, a small number of short BDA-labeled fibers are seen between theprominent RST and dorsal horn gray matter. Sections at same leveltreated with sNogoR310-Fc exhibit many linking fibers between the mainRST and dorsal horn gray matter. Transverse sections 11-15 mm distal toSCI, no BDA-labeled RST fibers in vehicle-treated rats. In contrast,sections at the same level receiving sNogoR310-Fc treatment display manyBDA-labeled RST fibers in both gray and white matter contralateral totracer injection. Some sprouts with a branching pattern are seen in thegray matter ipsilateral to BDA injection.

Ruphespinal spinal fibers were also examined in sNogoR310-Fc treatedspinal injured rats. Immunostaining demonstrates the density ofserotonergic fibers 11-15 mm rostral to lesion that is similar betweenvehicle and sNogoR310-Fc treated groups. In the sections 11-15 mm belowthe lesion, the seroton fibers in sNogoR310-Fc treated rats are twice asnumerous as those in the control group. These results demonstrate thatthe responsiveness to Nogo receptor-1 inhibition by sNogoR310-Fc proteinis not limited to CST fibers, and that the other descending tracts, suchas rubrospinal and serotonergic axons, are also responsive to Nogoreceptor-1 antagonism.

EXAMPLE 22 Local Treatment with sNogoR310-Fc Improves FunctionalRecovery in Rats

Intrathecal administration of sNogoR310-Fc protein stimulates axonregeneration in several descending pathways after traumatic spinal cordinjury. We tested whether the protein also improves functional recoveryin the injured spinal cord.

At 2 weeks after the hemisection, the locomotor BBB score invehicle-treated rats reaches a stable level of 12 (FIG. 14A). At 4 weeksafter lesion, most of controls (6 out of 7) have frequent-consistentweight-supported plantar steps and frequent-consistent forelimb-hindlimbcoordination, but they have a rotation of predominant paw position whenmaking initial contact with surface. In contrast, in rats receivingsNogoR310-Fc protein treatment, the locomotor score continues to improvebetween 2-4 weeks post-trauma. At 4 weeks after injury, all 9 of thesNogoR310-Fc treated animals had consistent forelimb-hindlimbcoordination and a parallel paw position at initial contact with thetesting surface.

Grid walking has been used to assess the deficits in descending finemotor control after spinal cord injury (Metz et al., 2000). Thisperformance requires forelimb-hindlimb coordination and voluntarymovement control mediated by ventrolateral, corticospinal andrubrospinal fibers. During the pre-injury training, all the ratsaccurately place their hindlimbs on the grid bars. At 2-4 weekspost-injury, control rats make 8-9 errors per session with only minimalimprovement over time. In contrast, the rats treated with sNogoR310-Fcexhibit a progressive improvement on grid walking and make significantfewer errors (4-7/session on average). The majority of the improvementoccurs at 2-3 weeks after injury. Analysis of hindpaw footprints incontrol group displays that stride length is significantly decreased andstance width is increased at 4 weeks post-hemisection, compared withuninjured rats or injured animals receiving sNogoR310-Fc treatment (FIG.14C). Therefore, these multiple behavioral tests demonstrate thatblockade of Nogo receptor-1 function with local injection of antagonistprotein improves locomotor recovery after injury.

Biological Deposits

Hybridomas HB 7E11 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4587), HB 1H2 (ATCC®accession No. PTA-4584), HB 3G5 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4586), HB 5B10(ATCC® accession No. PTA-4588) and HB 2F7 (ATCC® accession No. PTA-4585)were deposited with the American Type Culture Collection (“ATCC®”),10801 University Boulevard, Manassas, Va. 20110-2209, USA, on Aug. 9,2002.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, numerous changes andmodifications may be made to the preferred embodiments of the inventionwithout departing from the spirit of the invention. It is intended thatall such variations fall within the scope of the invention.

1. An isolated soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide comprising aminoacids 26-310 of SEQ ID NO:7 fused to immunoglobulin Fc; wherein saidsoluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide inhibits neurite outgrowthinhibition.
 2. The soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of claim 1 joinedto a signal sequence.
 3. A composition comprising a pharmaceuticallyacceptable carrier and the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide ofclaim
 1. 4. The composition of claim 3 further comprising one or moreadditional therapeutic agents.
 5. The composition of claim 4, whereinsaid therapeutic agent is an anti-inflammatory agent.
 6. The compositionof claim 3, wherein said composition is formulated for administration bya route selected from the group consisting of parenteral administration,subcutaneous administration, intravenous administration, intramuscularadministration, intraperitoneal administration, and microinfusionadministration.
 7. A method for inhibiting growth cone collapse of aneuron, comprising contacting the neuron with the soluble Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptide of claim
 1. 8. A method for decreasing theinhibition of neurite outgrowth or neurite sprouting in a neuron,comprising contacting the neuron with the soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide of claim
 1. 9. A method of promoting survival of a neuron atrisk of dying, comprising contacting the neuron with an effective amountof the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of claim
 1. 10. A method oftreating diabetic neuropathy in a mammal comprising administering to amammal in need of said treatment an effective amount of the soluble Nogoreceptor-1 polypeptide of claim
 1. 11. A method of treating traumaticbrain injury in a mammal comprising administering to a mammal in need ofsaid treatment an effective amount of the soluble Nogo receptor-1polypeptide of claim
 1. 12. A method of treating spinal cord injury in amammal comprising administering to a mammal in need of said treatment aneffective amount of the soluble Nogo receptor-1 polypeptide of claim 1.